Parker, Bart

Bart Parker studied literature and creative writing as an undergraduate, turning later to photography in 1959. He worked as a newspaper photographer for eight years before going on to complete an MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he studied under Harry Callahan. He began teaching in 1969 with a position at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In 1971, Parker moved to the University of Rhode Island, where he taught until his retirement in 1996, with the exception of occasional visiting artist positions at schools such as the San Francisco Art Institute (1973) and the University of California, Los Angeles (1975-76). Parker is represented in the portfolio Underware, published by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1976 to celebrate its centennial year, as one of nine former visiting artists along with photographs by the faculty of the school's Department of Photography.