Stephen Shames was a 20-year-old college student at Berkeley when he first came into contact with the Black Panther Party. With the backing of the co-founders, Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, Stephen was given full access to photograph the protests and rallies and also tender behind-the-scenes moments of party members with their families. A relatively unknown aspect of the Black Panther Party, which these photographs bring to light, is the place occupied by women, among them Gloria Abernethy, Evon Carter, Kathleen Cleaver, Angela Davis, Ericka Huggins, and Adrienne Humphrey who were on the front line of every struggle. It’s estimated that six out of ten Panther Party members were women. While these remarkable women of all ages and diverse backgrounds were regularly making headlines, these same women were building communities and enacting social justice, providing food, housing, education, healthcare, and more to the people. Comrade Sisters is their story. As Angela Davis points out, this exhibition “reminds us that women were literally at the heart of this new political approach to Black freedom.”
Left: March 31, 1972, Oakland, California, USA: Testing for Sickle Cell Anemia at Community Survival Conference. Right: 1972 Oakland, California, USA: Ruby Moore, Sickle Cell Tester, pricks a man’s finger to test for Sickle Cell during Bobby Seale’s campaign for Mayor of Oakland.
Mougins Centre de la Photographie is an institution dedicated to still and moving images, tasked with promoting and exhibiting the many trends in contemporary photography. Open to all forms of photographic modernity, the Center, as a municipal institution, boosts the cultural and tourism sector of the town of Mougins, seeking to enhance the region and foster international communication. From its opening on July 3rd 2021, its mission is to support the creation and experimentations of artists of all profiles: from France or overseas, up-and-coming or established.
Rencontres d’Arles. Every summer since 1970, over the course of more than forty exhibitions at various of the city's exceptional heritage sites, the Rencontres d'Arles has been a major influence in disseminating the best of world photography and playing the role of a springboard for photographic and contemporary creative talents.
Left: Black Panther children in a classroom with their teacher Evon Carter, widow of Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter, at the Intercommunal Youth Institute, the Black Panther school. Right: 1971 Oakland, California, USA: Black Panther Gloria Abernethy sells the Black Panther newspaper at the Mayfair supermarket boycott. Tamara Lacey holds a Sickle Cell Anemia poster.
has authored 15 monographs, and his images are in the permanent collections of 42 museums and foundations. His work is dedicated to promoting social change and sharing the stories of those who are frequently overlooked by society. His Panther books are Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers by Stephen Shames and Bobby Seale (Abrams, 2016), The Black Panthers (Aperture, 2006) and Comrade Sisters: The Women of the Black Panther Party (ACC Art Books).
Ericka Huggins is an activist, former political prisoner, and leader in the Black Panther Party. She has devoted her life to the equitable treatment of all human beings, beyond the boundaries of race, age, culture, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability and status associated with citizenship. For the past 40 years she has lectured across the country and internationally. She spent 14 years in the Black Panther Party, and eight years as Director of the renowned Oakland Community School (1973-1981).
