I made this portrait of Ernest Withers at Panopticon Gallery, then in Waltham, now in Kenmore Square. Mr. Withers died in 2007. He was famous for his civil rights photos and for his coverage of the Memphis Blues scene. Now, Memphis’ Commercial Appeal newspaper has a story about how Mr. Withers was an alleged FBI informant, a mole that was to infiltrate the civil rights movement through his contacts with Dr. Martin Luther King jr. I CNN video is here. He was a very nice guy. My portrait was of Withers seen in a reflection of a photograph that he took of B.B King. I believe I snapped this photo in 2004
Tags: 2010, Ernest Withers, Mark Garfinkel, Panopticon Gallery
