From capturing the essence of Harlem in the 1940s to working on assignments for Life magazine and documenting the 1963 March on Washington, Gordon Parks (1912-2006) used his camera as a formidable instrument for social change. His lens chronicled civil rights leaders like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as artists and celebrities such as Helen Frankenthaler and Ingrid Bergman. However, Parks is perhaps most celebrated for his unguarded images of families and communities in the segregated South during the Jim Crow era. These works, among others, will be featured in the exhibition Voices in the Mirror at the Jack Shainman Gallery in mid-September, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of The Gordon Parks Foundation.
Parks developed an interest in photography in 1937 after viewing images taken for the Farm Security Administration (FSA), an initiative aimed at documenting American life. Reflecting on this, he stated, “I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs,” prompting him to pursue photography. In 1942, he was appointed as the first Black photographer for the FSA, which brought him to Washington, D.C., where he observed that “discrimination and bigotry were worse there than any place I had yet seen.”
The exhibition Voices in the Mirror showcases key works, including “American Gothic, Washington, D.C.” (1942), a poignant portrait of government worker Ella Watson, portrayed with a broom and mop. This photograph echoes Grant Wood’s iconic “American Gothic” painting, but presents a starkly different narrative. After learning about Watson’s challenging experiences in D.C., Parks felt compelled to capture her story through his lens, positioning her in front of a flag with her tools. He expressed, “I didn’t care about what anybody else felt. That’s what I felt about America and Ella Watson’s position inside America.”
Accompanying the exhibition are stories and reflections from individuals featured in Parks’ photographs or connected to them, including Malcolm X’s daughter, Qubilah Shabazz, and Cora Taylor, who appeared near segregated water fountains in “Segregation in the South” (1956).
Voices in the Mirror opens on September 18 and will run until November 7 in New York. The exhibit may also spark interest in the works of other FSA photographers like Russell Lee and Marion Post Wolcott, who documented the South during the 1930s and 1940s.
