Child's Birthday Party, Atlantic City
1973-1978, printed 1994
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 19.05 × 29.21 cm (7 1/2 × 11 1/2 in.) sheet: 27.94 × 35.56 cm (11 × 14 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of Mr. Isidore and Mrs. Dorothy (Steinberg) Kavka and Museum Purchase)
Accession Number
2015.19.4549
Art Historical Context
Richard Gordon's *Child's Birthday Party, Atlantic City* (1973–1978, printed 1994) captures a joyful slice of mid-1970s American seaside life. Shot at the iconic Atlantic City boardwalk—a hub of family fun, amusement piers, and summer revelry before its 1976 casino transformation—this gelatin silver print likely depicts children and families gathered for a celebration amid the bustling resort atmosphere. Gordon, a documentary photographer, specialized in black-and-white images of everyday moments, evoking nostalgia for a vanishing era of unpolished leisure. The medium, gelatin silver print, e...
About the Artist
Richard Gordon
Richard Gordon (1945–2012) was a self-taught American photographer born in Chicago, Illinois. He studied political science at the University of Chicago from 1963 to 1967 but discovered photography in 1965 while working at a local studio.) Early in his career, Robert Frank critiqued his work, praising his passion for the medium, and Gordon frequently paid homage to influences like Eugène Atget, Wal...