William E. Parker, “Bill,” (1932–2009), artist and educator, taught, lectured, and wrote passionately about photography and art history. In order to understand the meaning and interpretation of images from the widest possible perspective, his lectures combined elements from art history, philosophy, psychology, science, literature, and critical theory. His guest lectures at the Rhode Island School of Design were conducted in grand style. Dressed more for a formal occasion like a wedding than a college course, Bill’s Florida accent reverberated off the lecture hall’s walls, its cadences rising to a booming crescendo before falling off to an almost imperceptible whisper. His ideas were punctuated with a vast array of entertaining stories from his personal life and always accompanied by an infectious, hearty, and, at times, almost apoplectic laugh. A highly intuitive thinker, Bill rarely filled a carousel of slides in preparation for a lecture. Knowing his own predilection for an associative approach, he would instead fish one image at a time out of his many metal slide cases, as the next image depended on where the associative chain might lead him. Bill’s lectures were famous for their many digressions—frustrating to those looking for a linear presentation, but highly rewarding to those who embrace an intuitive mode.

   Following the pioneering work of Heinrich Schwarz,[*] Parker’s approach to the history of photography was expansive in nature, based in the fundamental notion that beyond a mechanical system of technology, “photography” represents a specific mode of consciousness: its attitudes and attributes traceable to the earliest expressions of art. Parallel with, and dovetailing this historical survey or “mimetic tradition” were Bill’s lectures devoted to identifying and defining the unique characteristics of the medium of still photography, entitled “Ontological Aspects of the Photographic Image” after the similarly titled essay by Andre Bazin.[†]

   Parker was also deeply involved with Jungian psychology. His lectures on topics such as the difference between sign and symbol and the artist in relation to the culture at large drew heavily on Jungian ideas. For the practicing photographer, Parker developed a system of creating, interpreting, editing, and sequencing images based on Jung’s theory of psychological types. Rather than selecting and grouping work through the traditional genres that promoted similarity (landscape, still life, the nude, etc.), Parker’s system embraced a more integrative approach, accessing all four of the psychological types articulated by Jung: thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition.

It is my sincere hope that the interested visitor to this website chooses to engage directly with Bill’s unique insights into photography and art history by reading his published essays, listening to the audio tapes made available here courtesy of the Visual Studies Workshop, and reading the transcripts that I have provided.  In a strange way, the process of creating this website has brought me back to my very first encounter with Bill Parker: listening to recorded lectures while attending the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York, in the fall of 1981. I recall being absolutely enthralled by his material, both its style and content. Those of you who knew Bill might appreciate the number of times that I needed to rewind and replay the tapes in order to understand what he was saying as I was not familiar with his accent and vocal cadences.

It was not until 1984 that I met Bill in person, again in Rochester, for a two-week seminar in the application of Jungian typology to photographic practice. I introduced myself to him with the story of my listening to his lecture tapes. He laughed and immediately apologized for my having suffered through all of that material.

   I resumed my studies with Bill two years later in the MFA program at Rhode Island School of Design, attending each semester of his famous evening course, “Photo Iconography.” Upon my graduation, Bill gave me my first opportunity to teach, offering me a sabbatical replacement position at the University of Connecticut in 1988.  As I began a teaching career at a private school in Providence, I continued to sit in on his RISD class into the early 1990s.  The Visual Studies Workshop audio tapes, added to my own notes taken at Visual Studies and RISD, represent over twenty years of Bill’s teaching.

   As the years passed, we exchanged emails and an occasional phone call. I distinctly remember one such call from him just prior to one of his many surgeries in which he stated in a very matter of fact tone that if he did not survive the impending medical procedure, he wanted to tell me that he loved me. I am very glad I had the chance to return the sentiment and to tell Bill how much he meant to me. 

   The next time I heard from the Parkers, it was from his beloved wife, Tim Ann, who informed me of Bill’s passing.

In the fall of 2018, my daughter, Hannah, then a PhD student in England, asked me if I had any notes related to nineteenth-century photography. I immediately thought of Bill’s teaching materials and began the task of digitizing the volumes of notes that I had amassed over the years. During this process, it occurred to me that younger generations of rising image-makers could greatly benefit from Bill’s teaching. I contacted his daughter, Nevil, with a proposal to create a digital archive to Bill’s memory and to extend his legacy into the future.

   More than a thousand pages of transcriptions later, this material is ready to be shared, along with a selection of Bill’s artwork and family photographs. I am indebted to the Visual Studies Workshop, Rhode Island School of Design Special Collections, and the Archives for American Art for allowing me access to their holdings.  I thank many of Bill’s former students, friends, and colleagues for sharing images with me. Last, the creation of this website would not have been possible without Nevil’s sharing slides of and notes on Parker’s artwork and editing a brief biography of her father’s career: all of which can be found here.

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—Bob Martin, 2023

 

[*] Heinrich Schwarz (1894–1974) was an art historian and museum curator, who advocated for the importance of the graphic arts and photography in the context of traditional scholarship. His work can be found in Art and Photography: Forerunners and Influences, ed. William Parker, University of Chicago Press, 1987.

[†] Thought by many scholars to have invented modern film studies, Andre Bazin (1918–1958) was a highly influential French film critic, writer, and actor.