“This historic book provides powerful and poignant images of the most courageous group of young black people ever organized in America—the Black Panther Party.  Thank God for them—and Stephen Shames!”

—Cornell West, University Professor of Religion, Princeton University

THE BLACK PANTHERS

PHOTOGRAPHS BY STEPHEN SHAMES

ESSAYS BY BLACK PANTHER PARTY CO-FOUNDER BOBBY SEALE

AND CHARLES E. JONES

PUBLICATION COINCIDES WITH PARTY’S 40^TH ANNIVERSARY

In the midst of the largely nonviolent Civil Rights movement sweeping through America, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the legendary Black Panther Party, in 1966, in Oakland, California. The Party, revered by some and vilified by others, burst onto the scene with a militant vision that embraced violent tactics to advance its revolutionary agenda for social change and the empowerment of African-Americans. Its methods were highly controversial and polarizing, so much so that in 1968, FBI head J. Edgar Hoover described the organization as the country’s greatest threat to internal security.

During the height of the movement, from 1967 to 1973, photographer Stephen Shames had unprecedented access to the organization and captured not only its public face—street demonstrations, protests, and militant posturing—but also unscripted behind-the-scenes moments, from private meetings held in the Party headquarters, to Bobby Seale at work on his mayoral campaign in Oakland. The Black Panthers (Aperture, October 2006) brings together for the first time a remarkable collection of never-before-published images from Shames’s prolific output that has produced the largest archive of Panther photographs in the world. This illuminating volume reveals how Shames’s insider status enabled him to create an uncommonly nuanced portrait of this dynamic social movement, during one of the most tumultuous periods in U.S. history. 

Released on the occasion of the Party’s fortieth anniversary, The Black Panthers collectively conveys an electrifying visual history of one of America’s most important social movements. Coupled with iconic illustrations from Panther newspapers, posters, and other ephemera, this groundbreaking book reveals the ethos of both the Panthers and a dynamic period of social upheaval. An Aperture traveling exhibition of this work will open at Aperture Gallery in the spring of 2007 and then travel to venues around the world.

Stephen Shames has published three books with Aperture, Pursuing the Dream, Outside the Dream, and Empower Zone.  In 2003, Shames founded Outside the Dream, Uganda, a non-profit organization that locates bright, motivated AIDS orphans, child soldiers, and other vulnerable children in Uganda who want to go to college but cannot because of poverty, disease and war. Outside the Dream pays their school fees and prepares them for university.  Shames’s photographs are in the permanent collections of the International Center of Photography, New York; National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego; University of California’s Bancroft Library, Berkeley; and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.  He is represented by the Jack Shainman Gallery, New York and Polaris Images.

Bobby Seale is Founding Chairman of the Black Panther Party.  He is the author of Seize the Time: The Story of The Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton and A Lonely Rage: The Autobiography of Bobby Seale, among other books.

Charles E. Jones is Associate Professor and Founding Chair of the Department of African-American Studies at Georgia State University, Atlanta.  He is President of the National Council for Black Studies and has published extensively in scholarly journals and anthologies on African-American politics.  He is the editor of the anthology Black Panther Party [Reconsidered] and is currently completing a comprehensive political history of the party, tentatively entitled Right On!: A Political History of the Black Panther Party, 1966-1982.

73/4 x 103/16 in. (19.7 x 25.9 cm) 52 pages; 70 duotone images; 20 illustrations

Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-1-59711-024-2; ISBN-10: 1-59711-024-8 35.00; £19.50; October 2006

COntact: Andrea Smith, Director of Communications, Aperture Foundation, (212) 946-7111; asmith@aperture.org

BIOGRAPHY

            “Stephen Shames is a tremendous asset to the disadvantaged children of this nation…His photographs have helped bring the plight of poor children to the mainstream public.”

                                                                                    --Marian Wright Edelman

Stephen Shames creates award winning photo essays on social issues for magazines, books, foundations, advocacy organizations, and museums. Aperture published Outside the Dream, Pursuing the Dream, and the Black Panthers as monographs. Friends of the Children, became a video directed by Shames.

Steve’s images have been exhibited at and are in the permanent collections of the International Center of Photography, Museum of Photographic Arts, The National Portrait Gallery, The Bancroft Library of the University of California, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

He received awards from Kodak Crystal Eagle for Impact in Photojournalism, World Hunger Year, Leica, International Center of Photography, and Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Foundation.

Steve is one of ten photographers featured in Tipper Gore’s book on homelessness, The Way Home. Steve was profiled by Esquire and CBS Sunday Morning. He testified on child poverty to the U.S. Senate: was featured speaker at American Bar Association and Children’s Defense Fund national conferences. The Ford, Charles Stewart Mott, Robert Wood Johnson, and Annie E. Casey Foundations have underwritten his work. PBS named Hine, Wolcott, and Shames as photographers whose work promotes social change.

Clients include Newsweek, People, Esquire, US News, Time: The Ford, Robert Wood Johnson, Charles Stewart Mott, and Annie E. Casey Foundations; Children’s Defense Fund, Family Support America: International Center of Photography, National Portrait Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of art, and Museum of Photographic Arts.

Photo subjects include From the 4 Corners of the Earth, (portraits of multiracial Americans); Vulnerable Children of Uganda (AIDS orphans & child soldiers); Dads; Lost Boys, (work spanning four decades featuring “the children who fall out of their perambulators when the nurse is looking the other way”); The Bronx (a twenty year art documentation), Street Kids, and We Are America, (how children view America after 9/11.)

Art: Represented by Steven Kasher Gallery, New York.

Photojournalism: Steve is affiliated with the Polaris Images in New York.

Books

• The Black Panthers: (aperture, 2006). Foreword by Bobby Seale. Essay: Charles Jones
• Free to Grow (Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 2003) Text: Peter Meyer.
• Pursuing the Dream: What Helps Children and Their Families Succeed (Aperture & family support America, 1997). Preface: Michael Jordan. Essay: Roger Rosenblatt. Text: Kathy Wolf.

Pursuing the Dream: What Helps Children and Their Families Succeed, funded by The Ford, Robert Wood Johnson, and Charles Stewart Mott Foundations; Kodak and Canon, shows solutions to the problems outlined in Outside the Dream. Family Support America, in collaboration with eight state governments, mounted a multi-year (1998-2002) public education campaign using these photos. The exhibit has gone to 30 sites, was exhibited in the rotundas of three state capitols, and numerous professional conferences including the National Conference of State Legislators. Exhibits were opened by the Vice President, the First Lady, state governors, and mayors.

• Outside the Dream: Child Poverty in America (Aperture & Children’s Defense Fund, 1991). Introduction by Jonathan Kozol. Afterward by Marian Wright Edelman.
• Outside the Dream ivets attention on the more than 13 million children of poverty adrift in our affluent society. Outside the Dream received numerous prizes including the Kodak Crystal Eagle Award for Impact in Photojournalism. In 1993, this book was sent to every member of Congress, governor, and Fortune 500 CEO by The Ford, Danforth, Charles Stewart Mott Foundations, and the Foundation for Child Development.
• The Way Home (Harry Abrams, 1999) Photographs by Stephen Shames, Tipper Gore, Mary Ellen Mark, Annie Leibowitz, etc., Sponsors: National Alliance to End Homelessness & Corcoran Art Gallery.
• Homeless in America (Acropolis, 1998) Photographs by Stephen Shames, Mary Ellen Mark, etc. Homeless in America Photographic Project. Sponsors: Tipper Gore, Chair; Barbara Bush, Honorary Patron.
• Empower Zone (Aperture & EZ/EC Foundation Consortium, 2000) Photographs by youth photographers living in Empowerment Zones who were mentored by Steve.

Video&Film

• Northern Uganda: A Child’s View. Four minute trailer for a documentary being done showing the journey of abducted children from hell to redemption.
• Dance: 2005.  New Year’s Day celebrations in Uganda.
• Outside the Dream: Our students. Outside the Dream students discuss their dreams.
• Friends of the Children. (Produced by Chinagraph, 1999). Shown at Metropolitan and Brooklyn Museums during the Brooklyn arts Council Film & Video Festival and by the Brooklyn Working Artists Coalition Film Festival. Awards from Rochester & Columbus Film Festivals.

• Developed story for Hard Choices, a feature film. Award at LA Film Festival. (1985).
  Permanent Collection:
• International Center of Photography, New York
• National Portrait Gallery, Washington
• The Bancroft Library, University of California-Berkeley
• The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington
• Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
• San Jose Art Museum
• Oakland Museum, Oakland, California
• Philadelphia Art Museum
• University Art Museum, Berkeley
• Baruch College, New York
• The Ford Foundation, New York
• Family Support America, Chicago
• Education Trust, Washington
• Children’s Defense Fund, Washington
• The Honiickman Foundation, Philadelphia
• World Hunger Year, New York
• Chinagraph, New York

Fellowships and Grants

2003:          Knight International Press Fellowship.

2001:          Annie E. Casey Foundation.

1999:          EZ/EC Foundation Consortium.

1994-96:     The Ford Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Eastman Kodak, Canon USA, Leica, and Pennsylvania Council of the Arts.

1992:          NPPA – Nikon Documentary Sabbatical Grant.

1987:          Homeless in America Photographic Project.

1985:          Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship.

1981-85:     Freelance Photographer

1979-81:     Asst. Director of Photography, Parade.

1974-77:     Director and Co-Founder, Essential Idea Advertising.

1976:          Photo Editor & Chief Photographer, HABITAT, U N Conference.

National and International Awards  (selected)

Kodak Crystal Eagle Award for Excellence in Photojournalism

World Hunger Year,

World Press,

Leica Medal of Excellence in Photojournalism (3 times)

Luis Valtuna Humanitarian

International Center of Photography (Special Recognition)

Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards (2^nd & 3^rd)

New York Art Director’s Club, (Gold)

Gordon Parks (twice)

Rochester Film Festival.

W. Eugene Smith Grant finalist (twice),

Open Society finalist.

Canon Photo Essay ∙ Judges Special Recognition

Society of Newspaper Design (Silver, 2 times)

Society of Publication Designers – Annual

American Photography – Annual (2 times)

Communication Arts – Photography Annual (2 times)

Fotofest Publishing Conference – 2^nd Place

NPPA, Pictures of the Year. (many times)

NPPA ∙ Newspaper Photo of the Year – Award of Excellence

The Villers Foundation

Photo Essays and Projects

2005-6:       Vulnerable Children & Outside the Dream/Uganda

2004:          Child Soldiers & Children with AIDS/Uganda.; Keep a Child Alive (ARV drugs for children with AIDS)/ Kenya.

2003:          Megacities. Jews of Mumbai.; The Beach; Free to Grow; Street Kids/India.

2002:          Street Kids / Brazil; Street Kids / Bangladesh

2001:          World Trade Center, Stars & Stripes / New York, Dads series; Street Kids / Bangladesh; Fathers / US

2000:          AIDS Orphans / Uganda; Teens Design Web Sites, street Children, & Child Labor / Bangladesh; Burmese refugees / Burma & Thailand.

1999:          Refugees / Ethiopia, hurricane Mitch / Honduras, the Way Home, Empowerment Zone.

1994-98:     From the 4 Corners of the Earth: Multi Racial Americans, Polaroid Dreams, Annie Morton, model, pursuing the Dream.

1991-93:     Street Kids / Romania, US-Mexican Border, Surgeon / Vietnam, Homicide in Houston, Community Policing, Elderly Live Alone, The Bronx, Crown Heights, Integrated Neighborhood, Suburban Grandparents Raise Children (drugs).

1985-90:     Homeless Hotel, Battered Woman’s Shelter, Acupuncture for Crack, No Water in El Paso, Philippines: Street Children, Gold Mining, & Guerillas, invisible (suburban) Homeless, Infant Mortality, Doctors Help Homeless, outside the Dream, Life on Cocaine Corner, Stephen Hawking, Woman Surgeon.

1968-84:     Anwar Sadat, Jerusalem, Child Prostitute, Kids in Adult Jails, Juvenile Jails, Teen Sexuality, Storefront Churches, Lebanon Civil War, Israel, Northern Ireland, Black Panthers, 1960’s.

Media

Featured artist, CBS Sunday Morning

Profiled by Mory Alter, CBS Evening News, New York. (twice)

Written about in Truth Needs No Ally: Inside Photojournalism by Howard Chapnick.

Chapter about Shames in Photojournalism: The Professional’s Approach by Kenneth Kobre.

Featured in Right Brain, Left Brain Photography by Kathryn Marx

Written about by Esquire, US News, Ford Foundation Report, and Photo District News.

Jobs

2005-2006: Executive Director, Outside the Dream Foundation

1999: Freelance Photo Editor, Brill’s Content;

1986-91: Staff Photographer and Photo Editor, The Philadelphia Inquirer

1984: Director, Photojournalism Workshop, New School, New York

1977-81: Assistant Director of Photography, Parade

1975: Photo Editor, United Nations Habitat Conference.

1973-76: Principal and Director of essential Idea Advertising.

Exhibits  (selected)

2007	Black Panthers	Aperture. New York. Traveling Show
2006	Interrupted Lives (group)	Installation Piece in Traveling Exhibit
	Black Panthers	Center for Documetary Studies, Duke University
2005	Whole World is Rotten (group)	Jack Shainman Gallery. New York.  Black Panther pholtographs.
	Dads	Open Society Institute.  New York & Washington, DC
2004	Beggars & Choosers (group)	Open Society Institute.  New York.  Lead photo in show
2002	9 / 11	University of the Arts.  Philadelphia
1999-2001	The Way Home  (group)	Los Angeles County Museum.  The Corcoran Art Gallery.
2000	Black Panther Party	University of California. Graduate School of Journalism. Berkeley
1999-2000	Pursuing the Dream	Michigan / Georgia / Minnesota / Washington / Texas / Etc.
1998	Holding Patterns (group)	San Jose Museum of Art
1995	Summer of Love (group)	Friends of Photography.  San Francisco.  Photo on invitation
1989-1993	Outside the Dream	International Center of Photography; Museum of Photographic Arts;  Aperture (with Sally Mann), Prague House of Photography
	Homicide in Houston	Visa Pour L’Image.  Perpignan, France
	Eyes of Time: Photojournalism	International Museum of Photography - George Eastman House.

Publications

2005:    HIV & National Security, Council on Foreign Relations

            Vulnerable Children of Uganda, Outside the Dream Foundation website

            Abandoning the News, Carnegie reporter (Carnegie Corporation of New York)

2004:    Medical Care for Handicapped, Independent Care Systems

2003:    Street Kids Living in Kolkata Train Station, railway Children web site.

            Hope, International Youth Foundation

            Forty-Deuce, There Magazine

            Tough on Crime, Children’s Beat (Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families)

2002:    Making Fathers Count, Annie E. Casey Foundation

            NY2/Vuoi Saperer Come Cambia? Vai A Times Square, MC

            Voices from the Empowerment Zones, Annie E. Casey Foundation

2001:    World Trade Center, Paris Match

2000:    AIDS Orphans / Uganda; Teens Design Web sites, Street Children, & Child Labor / Bangladesh; Burmese refugees / Burma & Thailand

1999:    Mix Generation (multiracial), Italian fashion magazine

1991-98:Children of Urban Poverty: Approaches to a Critical American Problem, Carnegie           

            Corporation of New York

            Parents are Partners, center on Fathers, families, and Public Policy

            Looking Out for Families, the Ford Foundation

            Doctors Help Homeless, Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine

            Stephen Hawking, Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine

            Invisible Homeless, Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine

            Cocaine Corner, Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine

            Ancient Therapy for a Modern Plague, Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine

            Pursuing the Dream, Report (Family Support America)

            Reducing Infant Mortality, Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine

            The Burden & the Blessing, Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine

Outside the Dream published in: Newsweek, US News & World Report, esquire, Chicago Magazine, CBS Sunday Morning, Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Best of Photojournalism/7, People (review), Texas Monthly, Weekly reader, Holistic Education review, Photo District News, Communication Arts, Alicia Patterson Foundation Reporter

Hunger in America, New York Times Magazine

What the LAPD Ought to Try (community policing), US News & World Report

US Economy, Stern (Germany)

Ramon Rojano: New Vision for America’s Inner Cities, Family Therapy Networker

Juveniles in Jail, Photo (France)

Child Prostitute in Times Square, stern (Germany), Photo (France)

Making House Calls, family Therapy Networker

Homicide in Houston: Texas Monthly, Houston Chronicle, Photo District News

Stephen Shames: Book Jacket & Review Quotes

Pursuing the Dream: What Helps Children and Their Families Succeed

“Of everything I’ve accomplished in my life, nothing is more important to me than

my family…I see myself as an example of the difference a strong family and a strong community can make…As an adult I continue to support Boys & Girls Clubs and, particularly, the James Jordan Boys & Girls Club and Family Life Center in Chicago…In this book, you’ll see programs in other communities that make sure children and families get what they need to succeed. These programs may not have the backing of a major sports franchise or bear the name of a famous family, but they all deserve our support in whatever way we can give it.” -Michael Jordan (from his Preface to the book)

“What helps children and their families succeed? With his roving camera, Stephen Shames has documented some practical answers to this question in this timely and instructive book. The youngsters whose hopeful faces stare back at us from these pages are living proof of the difference that a healthy start, a safe place, a caring adult, and a chance to learn and grow can make in the life a troubled child.”  

-General Colin L. Powell

“Stephen Shames has captured the spirit of thousands of programs across our country that are quietly but stubbornly making the lives of children and families better in site of the bleak circumstances in which they live. The faces in this book show us what can happen inside a child’s heart when a caring person reaches out to him. This book can inspire all of us to seek out the many opportunities already available in our own communities to make a difference in the lives of others.” - President Jimmy Carter

“Stephen Shames has created the perfect follow-up to his landmark book Outside the Dream: Child Poverty in America. His photos sensitively capture the children and families being helped to succeed by hundreds of committed individuals in communities across the country. This special book is for everyone who has ever asked, “What can we do to help?” Pursuing the Dream beautifully portrays the essence of what works and why, and challenges us all to do more – now.” - Marian Wright Edelman

Outside the Dream: Child Poverty in America

“Outside the Dream is often disturbing, sometimes hopeful, but always deeply moving.”- Senator Edward Kennedy

“Outside the Dream is an important work that forces us to look at the face of child poverty and ask ourselves, “How can we let this happen?” How can we see the children in this book and continue to ignore their suffering and call ourselves moral people?” - Harry Belafonte

“Just as Walker Evans’ photographs helped America see the poverty of Appalachia, the vivid images in Outside the Dream will open our hearts to the deprivation that today afflicts not a region, but an entire generation.” - Senator Bill Bradley

“Outside the Dream is the latest milepost in Steve Shames’ perilous journey of sharing the life of the endangered young. His work is in the tradition of Jacob Riis, Lewis W. Hine, Dorothea Lange, and Gene Richards.”-  Cornell Capa, Founding Director, International Center of Photography

“Shames’ astonishing book…poses the question: What happens in a democracy when you tell thirteen million of its youngest citizens, You can live here, but you can’t have a piece of the pie? His answer should leave a bad taste in Washington’s mouth.” -Esquire

“Shames’ photos starkly show how poverty’s effects on the young; sad eyes, patched clothes, peeling walls, crowded beds, always-imminent violence. Some of his pictures are wrenching.”- People

“Stephen Shames’ photograph underscore the urgent need for jobs, education, and housing…He presents these children and their surroundings in an ‘in-your face’ fashion, leaving you no choice but to look, think and possibly be provoked to action” -Christian Science Monitor

“the greatest strength of “ Outside the Dream” is its bracing tone of moral outrage at the effects that poverty can have on children. In trying to promote social change by arousing public opinion, Mr. Shames follows in the honored tradition of Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine.”    -The New York Times