Gordon Parks’s photography lives on at the Jack Shainman Gallery on Lafayette Street.
In collaboration with the Gordon Parks Foundation, the gallery revisits the work of Parks through the people and the families he photographed in an exhibition titled “The Voices in the Mirror.”
“Over the last 20 years, the Gordon Parks Foundation has built relationships with many of the people that Gordon Parks photographed and got to know personally,” said Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr., executive director of the foundation. “We are honored to have so many of their stories brought together in an exhibition at the Jack Shainman Gallery, one that will allow us to continue learning from them, so that the past may continue to inspire us.”
For the first time, many of the families of the individuals photographed by Parks, including Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, have reflected in writing about how these images Parks were taken, the power of these images, and its meaning to them.
Marking the 20th anniversary of the foundation, “Voices in the Mirror,” the title of Parks’s final memoir published in 1990, goes beyond just the people he photographed. It is another deep-dive examination of the struggles these individuals and families have faced during a time of struggle for Black equality and excellence.
Muhammad Ali, Miami Beach, Florida, 1966.(Photos by Nafissatou Yattassaye) 
Untitled, Mobile, Alabama,1956 (left); Ondria Tanner and her grandmother windowshopping, Mobile, Alabama, 1956 (right). (Photos by Nafissatou Yattassaye) 
Eldridge Cleaver and his wife, Kathleen, Algiers, Algeria, 1970. (Photos by Nafissatou Yattassaye) 
(L) Untitled works, Harlem, New York, 1963 (left) and Harlem, New York, 1963, featuring Malcolm X (right). (Photos by Nafissatou Yattassaye) 
Untitled, Shady Grove, Alabama, 1956. (Photos by Nafissatou Yattassaye) 
Mr. and Mrs. Albert Thornton, Mobile, Alabama, 1956. (Photos by Nafissatou Yattassaye) 
At segregated drinking fountain, Mobile, Alabama, 1956. (Photos by Nafissatou Yattassaye) 
American Gothic, Washington, D.C., 1942. (Photos by Nafissatou Yattassaye) 
Untitled, Harlem, New York, 1947, young Black boy having to choose between white and Black dolls. (Photos by Nafissatou Yattassaye) 
Untitled, Mobile, Alabama, 1956, depicting Black family in front of whites-only sign.(Photos by Nafissatou Yattassaye) 
Visitors at Gordon Parks exhibition.(Photos by Nafissatou Yattassaye)
These images are stills of preserving Black culture and, Black excellence.
“There is something in his work that is so painterly and tender. The soft focus creates a kind of sacred distance between you and the subjects, even as it pulls you closer,” said Ava Duvernay, a young publicist for the 2000 Parks documentary and one of many who provided written reflections to the gallery on behalf of Parks’s work. “He did not bring elegance to Black life. He captured the elegance that is Black life.”
That elegance was on full display throughout the gallery. Parks strived to capture what it meant to be a person of color and identify as an African American in America in the 1940s and onward.
Images such as “Outside Looking In,” “At Segregated Drinking Fountain,” and “American Gothic,” to name a few, showcase a shared experience in the majority of the United States and all over the world, representing how racism and equality was an ongoing issue but self-representation as an African American remained.
“We have to let a lot of people know the power of the arts, and the freedom that comes with sharing, and giving, and knowing that everybody wants to have the same opportunities and evaluations of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” said former Ambassador Andrew Young in a reflection about Parks’s work.
The exhibit is up until November 10 on Tuesdays–Saturdays from 10 a.m.–6 p.m. at the Jack Shainman Gallery (46 Lafayette Street).
