Gordon Parks photos on exhibit at Northwestern
“Bare Witness: Photographs by Gordon Parks” a riveting exhibit of 73 black and white photographs of 20th Century American by iconoclastic photographer are on exhibit through June 28 at The Mary and Leigh Block Museum located on the Campus of Northwestern University in Evanston.
Parks (1912-2006), who worked for more than two decades as a photographer for Life Magazine, is known for capturing urban poverty, racism and social change through the lens of his camera. The subjects of his portraits as he chronicled the African-American experience, include cultural icons Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali and Langston Hughes. He also did fashion photography with work appearing in magazines such as Vogue.
Parks’ mother died when he was a teenager, pushing him at an early age into a life of poverty. Though he lacked professional training, he attributed his successes to setting his mind on goals.
His interest in photography began when he was a waiter aboard the Pullman trains. The photos in magazines riders left behind fascinated Parks. “I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs,” he wrote in his 1979 memoir "To Smile in Autumn."
Parks chose the pieces, those he considered his best, in the exhibit, before his death. Self-taught and multi-talented, Parks was also a writer, composer and filmmaker. He directed the films “The Learning Tree” in 1969 as well as “Shaft in 1971.
Posted by Lori Rotenberk
