He served four years in the army during World War II in the 37th division and went to the Fiji Islands, New Georgia, Guadalcanal, and the Philippines.
There he met the artists and instructors that helped him develop his talents: Ansel Adams, Minor White, Edward Weston, and Dorothea Lange.
Jones also took part in numerous collaborations with photographer and wife, Ruth-Marion Baruch, over the course of their 49-year marriage, including Illusion For Sale,[4] and a series on the hippies of Haight-Ashbury.
[citation needed] It was her desire to present a balanced view that inspired Jones and Baruch to photograph the Panthers from July to October 1968 in the San Francisco Bay Area.
[8] Donated by The Marin Community Foundation, The Pirkle Jones and Ruth-Marion Baruch Collection, an archive of photographs documenting the people, landscape, and politics of California in the mid-20th century, is the largest single gift in history, to UC Santa Cruz, with an estimated value of $32 million.