{"id":7077350,"date":"2026-10-05T21:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T21:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7077350"},"modified":"2026-10-05T21:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T21:19:13","slug":"the-groundbreaking-photography-of-gordon-parks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7077350","title":{"rendered":"The groundbreaking photography of Gordon Parks"},"content":{"rendered":"


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It was at the very start of this journey that Willis first met Gordon Parks (1912<\/span>\u2009\u2013\u20092006<\/span>), and began a\u00a0collaboration that would last throughout his life \u2013 and beyond. Now, on the occasion of the new exhibition,\u00a0<\/span>Gordon Parks: Voices in the Mirror<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u00a0<\/u><\/span><\/i>at Jack Shainman in New York, Willis joins Black Panthers leader Kathleen Cleaver, author Alice Walker, filmmaker Ava Duvernay, and curator Thelma Golden,\u00a0to reflect on the transcendent power of Parks\u2019s life and works.\u00a0Where Qubilah Shabazz chose a\u00a0portrait of her father,\u00a0<\/span>Malcolm X<\/span><\/a>, Lonnie Ali revisited Parks\u2019s relationship with her husband,\u00a0<\/span>Muhammad Ali<\/span><\/a>, writing, \u200b\u201c<\/span>They passed the torch, and they passed it fully\u00a0lit.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Willis is one of the torchbearers who continue to light the path as she walks. For the exhibition, she considers the 1942<\/span> portrait of charwoman Ella Watson titled, <\/span>American Gothic, Washington D.C.<\/span><\/i>, which Parks created at the start of his career after as a\u00a0member of the\u00a0<\/span>Farm Security Administration (FSA<\/span>)<\/span><\/a>, the fabled photography unit run by Roy Stryker.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The now-iconic portrait shows Watson standing in front of the American flag in a\u00a0humble polka dot dress, surrounded by the tools of her trade: broom and mop. She looks through wire rimmed spectacles with a\u00a0quiet intensity that does little to assuage the discomfiting realities of apartheid. As the only Black photographer on staff at the FSA<\/span>, Parks stood among legends like Walker Evans,\u00a0<\/span>Dorothea Lange<\/span><\/a>, and Russell Lee, poised to speak truth to power at the height of segregation. \u200b\u201c<\/span>He had a\u00a0story to tell,\u201d Willis says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n