Husband and wife, Sunday morning, Detroit, 1950. By Gordon Parks. © The Gordon Parks Foundation
Paul Goldfinger, Photography Editor @Blogfinger
Gordon Parks, 1912-2006, was a photojournalist on the staff of LIFE magazine and he often did photo essays for them about social issues. He grew up in segregated Fort Scott, Kansas where he was the youngest of 15 children.
The magazine asked him to look at the realities of life in the African-American part of town where he lived. He returned to his hometown to cover this story,”Back to Fort Scott,” and he got to visit his old friends and the places that he knew, such as the segregated schools there. His images revealed the life of this community in the 1940’s before the Civil Rights movement began. He also included photographs obtained of his childhood friends who, despite their problems with society, lived lives of dignity and productivity, and he followed them to their homes elsewhere. Many images show the families of his old friends.
Gordon Parks
Parks became famous and he was one of the few African-Americans in the photojournalism profession. He also was a movie director and a composer. This exhibit in Boston (Jan. 17 to Sept. 13) is of importance because this work was never published by LIFE magazine and thus is not well known. The photograph above was one of the first pictures acquired by the curators for this museum show. See link below to see a slide show of the exhibit and a video of the curator.
BIG MAYBELLE
Big Maybelle
I had the distinct honor of meeting Gordon Parks as a middle schooler; I had done a biographical study of his life and shared with him my final project from school. He was so kind and gracious! My mom (Carolyn, an avid reader of your blog and tenter in OG) still has the photo of us taken together. Thanks for sharing this glimpse into the Boston exhibit.