Bare Witness: Photographs by Gordon Parks

by Maren Stange, Gordon Parks (Photographer)

Novelist, memoirist, poet, film director, choreographer, and musician, Gordon Parks (1912-2006) was renowned as a man of many talents. He is best known as a photographer, a career he took up in the 1930s. Starting with fashion and portraiture, he honed his skill and his passion for documenting social ills working for the New Deal's Farm Security Administration. During World War II he became the first black photographer employed by the War Office of Information. After the war, he became Life magazine's first black staff photographer and established an international reputation publishing images and photo-essays that helped transform and liberalize American society by informing Americans about the plight of the urban poor. Maren Stange, an authority on documentary photography, provides an introduction to his work, surveying his career and analyzing the distinguished qualities of his compelling images. This catalog accompanies the traveling exhibition organized by the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University.

Genres: Photography, Art, Nonfiction

112 pages, Hardcover

First published March 20, 2007

Reviews

[Vivek · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who has very little exposure to his work, I thought this was an excellent introduction to Gordon Parks' photography. I really liked the essay by Maren Stange, which goes through Parks' photography career in an accessible way with some thought-provoking analysis. I definitely want to seek out more of Parks' photography, as well as his own writings, especially his reflections on the Black Power movement (there are some short excerpts from him in the essay that have me super interested in reading more of what he had to say himself).

Favorite photographs from this collection:

"Brothers of the Killers Selected to Judge (Malcolm X Asleep on the Airplane)," 1963

"Emerging Man," 1952

"Black Muslim Schoolchildren in Chicago," 1963

"Muhammad Ali After Cooper Fight in London (Hands)," 1966

The early/later photos of Flavio de Silva were also striking.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing and mesmerizing art

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars // A solid collection of photographs by Gordon Parks, supplemented with a single essay by Maren Stange.

For a more robust, enriched experience, I would instead recommend Half Past Autumn by Gordon Parks. It's an amazing and heavy tome, containing an essay by Philip Brookman, and a multitude of photos. Additionally, it includes Gordon's stories behind the photos, as well as some of his poetry and more recent work. The stories collected during his time photographing Flavio in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro (Life magazine, 1961) are truly heartrending.

Parks is a great writer, and has published a few autobiographies which impart further insight into his varied career. Our arts book club recently read Choice of Weapons; I'm glad to have finally been introduced formally to his work and words.

[Valarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible photographs, but I didn't get the feel that it was a cohesive work. The images spanned decades and continents without a real theme. To be fair, though, I didn't read the introduction - I only had time to look through the photos.