Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago
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
2015.19.4536
Art Historical Context
Richard Gordon's *Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago (1973–1978, printed 1994) offers a captivating glimpse into the heart of one of America's oldest free public zoos, founded in 1868. Captured over five years during the vibrant 1970s, this gelatin silver print reflects the era's urban leisure culture, where families flocked to Lincoln Park for encounters with exotic animals amid Chicago's bustling cityscape., a master of documentary photography, likely distilled candid moments of wildlife and human interaction, evoking the zoo's role as a democratic public space. The medium—gelatin silver print—exemp...
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...