Pirkle Jones

Place: Shreveport

Born: 1914

Death: 2009

Biography:

Pirkle Jones was an American documentary photographer and educator. He was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and his first experience with photography was when he bought a Kodak Brownie at the age of seventeen. After serving in the army during World War II, he entered the first class in photography offered by the California School of Fine Arts, where he met artists and instructors who helped him develop his talents, including Ansel Adams, Minor White, Edward Weston, and Dorothea Lange. Jones worked as Ansel Adams' assistant for 6 years, and the two photographers forged a lifelong friendship. Jones collaborated with Dorothea Lange on a photographic essay entitled 'Death of a Valley' in 1956, and he took part in numerous collaborations with photographer and wife, Ruth-Marion Baruch, over the course of their 49-year marriage. Jones was the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the San Francisco Art Institute, where he taught until 1994. He died in 2009.