SF library exhibit honors Oakland Tribune's first Black photographer
By Joe Rosato Jr.
February 7, 2024, NBC Bay Area
It is not hyperbole to say Kenneth Green lived photography until his last breath.
His love for it began when he studied photography at Oakland’s Laney College in the 1960s. It ended on June 25, 1982, when the Oakland Tribune photographer was hit by a train trying to position himself for a better-than-average photo. In between, Green clicked tens of thousand photos documenting a giant swath of Black culture in the Bay Area.
“He took pictures all day, all night,” said his son, Kenneth Green Jr. “He died with a camera in his hand.” Read more
Oakland Tribune’s First Black Photojournalist Captured the ‘Black Aesthetic’ of the ’60s & ’70s
by Ariana Proehl, KQED
January 25, 2024
You know that curiosity that pops up sometimes when you’re in a gallery and you’re looking at a really good photo of a stranger? And the spirit of it, the everyday-ness of it, makes you want to know the person’s story? Were they happy in life? What were their struggles? What was their day like before and after that picture was taken? Are they still alive?
That’s the feeling I had looking at Kenneth P. Green Sr.’s photographs, now on display at the Jewett Gallery in San Francisco’s Main Public Library. Read more
Why the Photographs of Kenneth P. Green Sr. Are “Turning Up!” Empowering Teens Today By Sharing Images of 1960s Oakland.
Story by SJ Johnson for Medium.com
February 28, 2018
This month A Safe Place helped organized two “Turn Up” events to spread the word about healthy teen relationships. To help us, Kenneth Green Jr. really turned it up, sharing amazing photographs from 1960s Oakland, taken by his father, the celebrated photo-documentarian, Kenneth P. Green Sr. Read more…
A Legacy in Photographs. Kenneth Green, Jr. rediscovers his father’s archive, capturing a pivotal era of Oakland and Black Panther Party history.
Interview by Lisa Silberstein, Experience Developer at Oakland Museum of California
November 17, 2016
Kenneth Green’s son, Kenneth Green, Jr., was born and raised in Oakland, and has spent years slowly uncovering the archive that his father amassed during his time as a photography student at Laney College and on the staff of The Oakland Tribune. As Kenneth Green, Jr. adds more photos to the online archive of his dad’s work, we talked to him about the historic importance of these images, finding his dad through photography, and what it means to have his father’s images shown to the public at the Museum. Read more
