National Guardsman on route to Conventional Hall, Chicago
Photograph
1968 (photographed)
1968 (photographed)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
This photograph was taken during anti-Vietnam riots at the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago in 1968. The photographer Michael Cooper attended the convention with writers William Burroughs, Jean Genet, Allen Ginsberg and Terry Southern, who had been commissioned by Esquire to report on the Convention after President Lyndon Johnson, announced he would not contest a second term. The rioting, which came during a tumultuous year in American politics, were one of the defining events of counter-culture unrest during the 1960s.
Object details
Category | |
Object type | |
Title | National Guardsman on route to Conventional Hall, Chicago (assigned by artist) |
Materials and techniques | Gelatin-silver print |
Brief description | 'National Guardsman on route to Conventional Hall, Chicago', gelatin-silver print, Michael Cooper, Chicago, 1968 |
Physical description | Black and white image of masked and armed guardsmen standing in a line, with buildings behind them, mounted with green silk |
Dimensions |
|
Style | |
Gallery label | Michael Cooper 1941-1973
For over a quarter of a century, the photographs of Michael Cooper have been identified with the chronology of the Rolling Stones. His documentation of the years that he knew them, from 1963 to his death a decade later, has ensured that his name is synonymous with the band. Part of its fact - and its mythology.
He was also involved with the London art scene of the sixties. The Robert Fraser Gallery in Duke Street, Mayfair - to which Cooper became attached in 1964 - played host to the incipient Pop Art movement as well as to established names such as Jean Dubuffet and Rene Magritte.
Cooper typically photographed in available light and in a documentary style. He turned photojournalist proper - though commissioned by no-one - to record two occasions when the counter-culture stood firm against the establishment, calling for the cessation of American military involvement in Vietnam. Cooper turned his camera on the riots at the Democratic Convention, Chicago, in the summer of 1968 and the disturbances in the same year outside the American embassy in London.
The subjects of Michael Cooper's photographs were, as he said "not just faces that I have photographed but people I have worked with or become involved with on a very personal level". They are an intimate chronicle of the cultural and political climate of a vibrant moment of history.
Robin Muir(1999) |
Credit line | Given by Adam Cooper |
Summary | This photograph was taken during anti-Vietnam riots at the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago in 1968. The photographer Michael Cooper attended the convention with writers William Burroughs, Jean Genet, Allen Ginsberg and Terry Southern, who had been commissioned by Esquire to report on the Convention after President Lyndon Johnson, announced he would not contest a second term. The rioting, which came during a tumultuous year in American politics, were one of the defining events of counter-culture unrest during the 1960s. |
Bibliographic reference | Muir, R. You Are Here: Michael Cooper - The London Sixties, 1999 |
Collection | |
Accession number | E.2067-2004 |
About this object record
Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
Record created | April 27, 2006 |
Record URL |
Download as: JSON