{{short description|American photographer}} '''Pirkle Jones''' (January 2, 1914 – March 15, 2009)<ref>{{cite news|title=Pirkle Jones, Documentary Photographer, Dies at 95|first=William|last=Grimes|date=March 23, 2009|accessdate=March 23, 2009|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/arts/23jones.html|work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref name=LATObit>{{cite news|title=Pirkle Jones, California photographer, dies at 95|first=Elaine|last=Woo|date=March 23, 2009|accessdate=March 24, 2009|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-pirkle-jones24-2009mar24,0,978554.story|work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> was an American documentary photographer and educator.
== Biography == Pirkle Jones was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. His first experience with photography was when he bought a Kodak Brownie at the age of seventeen. In the 1930s, his photographs were featured in pictorialist salons and publications. He served four years in the army during World War II in the 37th division and went to the Fiji Islands, New Georgia, Guadalcanal, and the Philippines.
After the war, Jones entered the first class in photography offered by the California School of Fine Arts. There he met the artists and instructors that helped him develop his talents: Ansel Adams, Minor White, Edward Weston, and Dorothea Lange.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Comer |first1=Stephanie |last2=Klochko |first2=Deborah |last3=Gunderson |first3=Jeff |date=2006 |title=The Moment of Seeing |url=http://www.chroniclebooks.com |location=San Francisco |publisher=Chronicle Books LLC |pages=22–66 |isbn=978-0-8118-5468-9 }}</ref> Jones worked as Ansel Adams' assistant for 6 years, and the two photographers forged a lifelong friendship.
Dorothea Lange came to him in 1956 with an idea to collaborate on a photographic essay entitled "Death of a Valley". The essay chronicled the death of the town of Monticello, California in the Berryessa Valley, which disappeared when the Monticello Dam was completed. The photographs were taken in the last year of its existence. Jones later described the project with Lange as "one of the most meaningful photographic experiences of [his] life".
Jones also took part in numerous collaborations with photographer and wife, Ruth-Marion Baruch, over the course of their 49-year marriage, including ''Illusion For Sale'',<ref name="digitalcollections.library.ucsc.edu/x633f134b">{{cite web |last1=Baruch |first1=Ruth-Marion |last2=Jones |first2=Pirkle |author1-link=Ruth-Marion Baruch |author2-link=Pirkle Jones |title=Ransohoff salesgirl dreaming, #9 from Illusion For Sale, San Francisco |url=https://digitalcollections.library.ucsc.edu/concern/works/x633f134b |website=digitalcollections.library.ucsc.edu}}</ref> and a series on the hippies of Haight-Ashbury.<ref name="marinij/pirkle-jones-panthers-hippies">{{cite news |title=Pirkle Jones photos of Panthers, Summer of Love on exhibit |url=https://www.marinij.com/2011/05/12/pirkle-jones-photos-of-panthers-summer-of-love-on-exhibit/ |access-date=18 July 2023 |work=Marin Independent Journal |date=12 May 2011}}</ref>
In 1968, Ruth-Marion introduced herself to Kathleen Cleaver, wife of famous Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver, and spoke of her interest in the Black Panthers and their portrayal by the media.{{Citation needed|date=August 2009}} It was her desire to present a balanced view that inspired Jones and Baruch to photograph the Panthers from July to October 1968 in the San Francisco Bay Area.<ref>"The Black Panthers 1968: Photographs by Ruth-Marion Baruch and Pirkle Jones", University of California/Berkeley Art Museum, http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/press/release/TXT0061 accessed December 14, 2011</ref><ref name="isbn=978-0-9819933-7-9">{{cite book |last1=Baruch |first1=Ruth-Marion |last2=Jones |first2=Pirkle |author1-link=Ruth-Marion Baruch |author2-link=Pirkle Jones |title=Black Power: Flower Power |date=2012 |publisher=Pirkle Jones Foundation |isbn=978-0-9819933-7-9 |language=en}}</ref>
Jones was the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the San Francisco Art Institute, where he taught until 1994. One of his students was Geraldine Sharpe.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |date=1955-01-16 |title=Hands Seen as Symbols |pages=62 |work=The San Francisco Examiner |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114794610/hands-seen-as-symbols/ |access-date=2022-12-18}}</ref>
Donated by The Marin Community Foundation, The Pirkle Jones and Ruth-Marion Baruch Collection, an archive of photographs documenting the people, landscape, and politics of California in the mid-20th century, is the largest single gift in history, to UC Santa Cruz, with an estimated value of $32 million.<ref name="universityofcalifornia/SC-largest-gift">{{cite web |last1=Rappaport |first1=Scott |title=UC Santa Cruz receives largest-ever gift |url=https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/uc-santa-cruz-receives-largest-ever-gift |website=University of California |access-date=18 July 2023 |language=en |date=7 October 2016}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book |title=100 Years of Mechanics' Institute of San Francisco, 1855-1955 |publisher=Mechanics Institute |year=1955 <!-- |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BkzBAAAAIAAJ&q=Pirkle -->}} * {{cite book |title=The Vanguard: A Photographic Essay on the Black Panthers |url=https://archive.org/details/vanguardphotogra00baru |isbn=0807005525 |publisher=Beacon Press |year=1990 |last=Baruch |first=Ruth-Marion }} * {{cite book |title=Pirkle Jones: California Photographs, 1935-1982 |last=Jones |first=Pirkle |publisher=Aperture <!-- |edition=1st --> |date=1 November 2001 |isbn=978-0-89381-949-1}} * {{cite book |title=Black Panthers 1968 |last1=Baruch |first1=Ruth-Marion |last2=Jones |first2=Pirkle |publisher=Greybull Press <!-- |edition=1st --> |date=2 September 2002 |isbn=978-0-9672366-9-8}}
==External links== *{{cite web |title=Ruth-Marion Baruch Photographs and Papers and Pirkle Jones Photographs and Papers |url=https://exhibits.library.ucsc.edu/exhibits/show/activism-in-the-archives/baruch-jones |website=Activism in the Archives: Radical Imaginaries of the 1960s and 1970s |publisher=Library Digital Exhibits, University of California, Santa Cruz |access-date=18 July 2023}} *[https://calisphere.org/collections/27086/ Ruth-Marion Baruch and Pirkle Jones Photographs] calisphere *{{Cite web |title=Pirkle Jones, 1914-2009 |url=http://jetcityorange.com/pirkle-jones/ |work=JetCityOrange |publisher=Jerry Whiting |date=March 2009 |last=Whiting |first=Jerry |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101008090239/http://jetcityorange.com/Pirkle-Jones/ |archivedate=8 October 2010 |url-status=dead }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Pirkle}} Category:20th-century American photographers Category:1914 births Category:2009 deaths Category:People from Shreveport, Louisiana Category:Photographers from Louisiana Category:San Francisco Art Institute alumni Category:San Francisco Art Institute faculty Category:United States Army personnel of World War II Category:American documentary photographers