A Portrait Of African American Photography:
Introduction
Hey Gen Z ‘ers please stop reminiscing about that “Charlie Bit My Finger” video for a moment. Millennials can you pause that re-run of the Fresh Prince of Belair for ten minutes. Generation X and Baby Boomers your taped 60 Minutes can wait until tomorrow.
Marketers and visual storytellers. Creatives. Students. Professors. Curiosity seekers. Wannabe photographers — including myself. Allow me to introduce to most and present to others master photographer and creative Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks.
Gordon Parks was born in 1912, the youngest of 15 children, and raised in Fort Scott, Kansas. He was an accomplished author, composer, and filmmaker, and internationally renowned and award-winning photographer. Parks worked as a piano player, busboy, dining car waiter, and professional basketball player.
A Portrait Of African American Photography:
Gordon Parks became interested in photography while working on the railroad. His first pictures were taken in Seattle, Washington, in 1937 after he finished a train run from St. Paul, Minnesota. He bought his first camera, called a Voightlander Brilliant, which cost $7.50.
In their 2002 article A Choice of Weapons: Photographs of Gordon Parks, Mitchell, Hamon, and Anderson offer an enduring insight on Gordon’s intentions in taking pictures. “I bought that Voightlander Brilliant at a Seattle pawnshop: it wasn’t much of a camera, but for only $7.50, I had purchased a weapon I had hoped to use against a warped past and an uncertain future.”
It was a brand-name camera that Mr. Parks could not resist. Gordon took his first pictures on Seattle’s waterfront. He fell off a pier trying to photograph seagulls in sight. Later he would drop his film off at Eastman Kodak Co. The pictures were so good that Eastman Kodak gave his first exhibition.
A Portrait Of African American Photography:
In St. Paul, Parks began working on fashion photography making a name for himself. He took pictures of famous people, for example, Joe Louis, heavyweight champion. On the advice of Mr. Louis’s wife, he moved to Chicago where he could make more money in fashion.
Gordon Parks was one of the seminal figures of twentieth century photography. A self-taught photographer Mr. Parks was just as home with glamour shots with as he was with serious, edgy portraits. Although his photography could be radically different, it all still held the same signature style and energy. Yet Parks flair and range transcended any sort of artistic box.
A humanitarian with a deep commitment to social justice, he left behind a body of work that documents many of the most important aspects of American culture from the early 1940s up until his death in 2006, with a focus on race relations, poverty, Civil Rights, and urban life.
Parks interacted with many of the most prominent people of his era — from politicians and artists to celebrities and athletes. The artistic flair and eye with which he photographed celebrities, fashion models, and even everyday folks were not lost on the man himself.
Gordan was quite the debonair dresser who and could often be seen with his signature trench coat and pressed white starched shirt usually “adorned” with his trusty pipe and camera. Depending on the occasion you might find him donning a double-breasted jacket or a sharp suit. Starting to get the picture? He was indeed an enduring avatar of style!
A Portrait Of African American Photography:
Yet, for all his sense of style and the moment. For all the recognition and opportunities that he had achieved through his passion for his craft, Gordan Parks had a compassionate heart. One who appears to not have forgotten his very humble beginnings.
Debra A. Fisher in her article A Portrait of African American Photography: Through The Eyes of Gordon Parks cites Gordon Parks’ extraordinary essay on Flavio da Silva, a poverty-stricken Brazilian boy as evidence of his compassion. Perhaps it is a fair point given the serious and poverty-related circumstances of many of his photographed subjects.
At any rate, Parks found the Brazilian boy dying in the slums above Rio de Janeiro in 1961, and it is an unforgettable story she indicates. As told by reading many of his books, she recounts that Parks was not able to document poverty and despair without becoming involved in the lives of people he photographed. I can only imagine some of the specific things he did to help people beyond just photographically documenting their plight. This research paper will critically explore and analyze visual storytelling and gestalt theory by primarily focusing on seven of Gordan Park’s most famous photographic portraits. It promises to be an informative, interesting, humanistic, and hopefully a stimulating survey of some of his works.
Gestalt Theory
In a 2018 article entitled The designer’s guide to Gestalt Theory Sam Hampton-Smith essentially informs us that Gestalt theory, developed by a group of psychologists in Germany, is a series of theories of visual perception. The term Gestalt he goes on to say roughly means “unified whole” the over-arching theme referring to the way in which we as humans, when looking at a group of objects, will see the whole before they see the individual parts.
From an artistic point of view, designs tend to be more exciting, connected, coherent and complete when they leverage the principles summarized in the following graphic.
Visual Storytelling
As the name suggests, visual storytelling involves sharing a story with an emphasis on utilizing graphics or pictures as opposed to text. Visual stories usually have a connecting theme and are often timely and current to a local, national, or international happening.
According to Jade Lien and her article, The Four Principles of Visual Storytelling, the four pillars of visual storytelling are authenticity, sensory, relevancy, and archetype.
As we shall see, Gordan Parks works particularly embody these concepts, techniques, and more. He was a master and socially impactful visual storyteller before visual storytelling was cool or fashionable.
A Portrait Of African American Photography:
Photographic Portrait No. 1 of 7 – “American Gothic”
The call of this experiential excitement beckons movement so on with the individual photographic portrait explorations!
A Portrait Of African American Photography:
Gordon Parks is most famous for his photographic portraits. This 1942 photo is probably his most famous one. Entitled “American Gothic” it depicts African American woman Ella Watson, who was a cleaner at the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Parks was also working there having won a photography fellowship. This photo was published as a way to “introduce America to Americans”.
In terms of the best of visual storytelling, this is about as authentic and relevant as it gets. Look her in her eye for a couple of minutes. This photo poignantly represents the work-life of many African Americans at the time. It is sensory and speaks pointedly to the servant/maid archetype of “negro” women of that era.
The photo illustrates the Gestalt-related concept of Figure and Ground where Parks consciously, strategically, and effectively places the focal point, Ella in the foreground while juxtaposing the American Flag —- intentionally blurry as it may be —- in the background.
Does it remind you of another artwork?
The just discussed Ella Watson photograph on the left, is a direct parody of artist Grant Wood’s iconic 1930s painting of the same title which is on the right.
Ella’s photograph was a challenge aimed at the treatment of African Americans by highlighting the inequality in the so-called “Land of the Free”. The image came to symbolize life in pre-civil-rights America.
The photographic concept of lines, as used here, evoke a sense of verticality as they move from one point to another.
Mr. Parks seems to use the strong lines of the backlit flag in the black and white photo of Ms. Watson on the left to seem to intentionally underscore her small size and the daily work grind that Ella had to endure.
Photographic Portrait No. 2 of 7 – “Ethel Shariff”
A Portrait Of African American Photography:
Emphasis is the strongest area of the composition where all the attention goes. I’d say the main subject in this 1963 Chicago photo, “Ethel Shariff” (daughter of Elijah Muhammad – leader of the Nation of Islam) is emphasized, wouldn’t you?
This photo also harkens back to the Gestalt-related concept of Figure and Ground where Parks effectively places the focal point, Ms. Shariff, in the foreground while leaving her Muslim sisters blurred and in the background.
The Gestalt principles of Similarity are featured here also. Here Parks deftly leverages the similarity of the women’s white clothing, black faces, and upright, forward-facing orientation to make a strong visual statement.
In the unified, forward-facing posture Parks also has invoked the Gestalt principle of Common Fate: Although Ethel is most prominent, we see the women very clearly aligned religiously and visually, as belonging to the same group.
Photographic Portrait Nos. 3 of 7 and 4 of 7 Respectively – “Children with Doll and [Lady on Phone]”
First Photo — Children with Doll, Washington, D.C. 1942
Second Photo — Unknown Title and Time
The visual storytelling principle of true and effective authenticity seems to be apparent in both of the pictures in which parks deftly captures each moment.
For all of the subjects above, the photographer, Mr. Parks, might as well as have been nonexistent, the proverbial fly on the wall!. My understanding is that sometimes he would spend up a week with his subjects, building trust, before taking any pictures!
Notably, Mr. Parks also very effectively uses the photographic or design technique of “light and dark” within these two photos.
This whether the “light and dark” technique is achieved through the use of camera filters, the actual timing of the photos (say mid-day), or some other post-production techniques.
Notice that a theme of seriousness, somberness, and significance is part and parcel of many of Gordon Parks’ photographs. Accordingly, although a good chunk of his photographs and interests chronicle the social ills and poverty of his day as the photo on the right demonstrates he does have a more whimsical, carefree even sensual side.
A Portrait Of African American Photography:
Photographic Portrait No. 5 of 7 – “Fashion”
This 1962 photograph, entitled “Fashion” is one of Park’s modernistic photos. Within chapter 9, of her History of Visual Design website titled The Modernists, graphic artist-turned-Turkish academic Elif Ayiter, contextually provides some background on modernism.
Elif shares that Modernism is a period in Western society from the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century involving progressive cultural movements in art and architecture, music, literature, and the applied arts.
Modernism affirms the power of human beings to make, improve, and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology, and practical experimentation. Gordan Parks certainly used the camera and film technology available to him to experimentally push the landscape of visual storytelling boundaries all while giving his viewers a front-row seat.
This particular woman’s picture shows Parks’ versatility in seamlessly moving from matters of civil rights, social issues, and poverty to high fashion and more sensuous portraits. The fact that “sexiness sells” did not seem to have escaped Gordon Parks’ sensibilities and the practical work opportunities that such modeling shoots offered. Jesús Costantino in his 2016 Johns Hopkins University Press article entitled Harlem in Furs: Race and Fashion in the Photography of Gordon Parks affirms Parks photographic fluidity. To this point Costantino stated:
From his earliest photography to his late-career work, Parks strategically vacillated
between images of racial inequality and commercial fashion — sometimes within the
same issue of a magazine — blending two subjects at the forefront of the American
bourgeois visual imagination.
Still, Gordan Parks got his break shooting women in dresses and various outfits. He did numerous high fashion photoshoots, especially early in his career.
A Portrait Of African American Photography:
Getting back to the slightly muted red tones of the earlier, larger 1962 “lady in red” shot gives that photo the feel of a painting to me.
The Gestalt-related principle of Symmetry is featured in that earlier shot both in the linear, proportioned nature of its composition and in terms of the seductive “lady in red” herself.
Interestingly it appears that Gordon, as an experienced photographer, may have intentionally broken the photographic “Rule of Thirds” principle by placing the main subject of that earlier photo (the “lady in red”) closer to the center of the photo compositionally as opposed to the left or right third of the frame.
In other words in the “lady in red” shot, Parks as a master photographer, did not leave the other two-thirds of the piece more open as the rules of thirds emphasizes to achieve visual interest.
Photographic Portrait Nos. 6 of 7 and 7 of 7 Respectively – “The Fontanelle Family” and “Red Jackson”
This photographer extraordinaire also effectively employs the visual storytelling authenticity, sensory, and relevancy here. The screen may be split but you can also distinctly see Parks’ signature photographic or design technique of “light and dark” in these two famous photographs once again.
This technique incredibly underscores the serious, somber temperaments in both of these shots.
The first 1967 photo on the left is of the Fontanelle family Bessie and Kenneth, little Richard, Norman Jr., and Ellen at the poverty board in New York City. Can’t you just feel the downcast mood here?
The second 1948 photo on the right is of one particular Harlem New York gang leader, Leonard “Red” Jackson. Makes me wonder a bit what this gang banger must be thinking?!
These two photos demonstrate Mr. Park’s ability to just disappear and let all our attention, and emotions be on the subjects. All of these subjects on this page, in their own way, emanate and ooze a particular sense of tension and drama.
Both “The Fontanelle Family” and the “Red Jackson” images effectively illustrate what author Bo Bergstrom, in his article entitled Essentials of Visual Communication, describes as “the dramatic storytelling technique”.
True to this “the dramatic storytelling technique” these photographs in my mind leave little room for interpretation in terms of the general mood that they create. As an African American that is old enough and exposed enough to appreciate these pictures, I strongly identify with them and am almost completely absorbed when I look at them.
Some Concluding Thoughts
Besides photographing themes dealing with race relations, poverty, civil rights, and urban life this creative took pictures of, or with several of the politicians and celebrities of his day.
In the black and white photos on the above left, Mr. Parks is shown walking with then world heavyweight boxing champ and definite personality, Muhammad Ali.
In the middle shot, Mr. Parks captured a rather dramatic, close-up shot of Ali, known as “the people’s champ”.
The color photo on the right is, of course, a photographic self-portrait of himself.
With his classic and timeless examples of photographic style, strong messaging, and impeccable techniques, Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks is not just “the man of the hour” but rather a timeless, ageless, and imaginative American treasure.
References
Ayiter, E. (2005). Section 9, The Modernists, of The History of Visual Communication. viscomhistory. https://www.historyofvisualcommunication.com/.
Bergstrom, B. (n.d.). Essentials of Visual Communication. Scribd. https://www.scribd.com/doc/133684696/Essentials-of-Visual-Communication.
Biography.com Editors. (2020, July 9). Gordon Parks. Biography.com. https://www.biography.com/artist/gordon-parks.
Busche, L. (n.d.). Simplicity, symmetry, and more: Gestalt theory and the design principles it gave birth to. canva.com. https://www.canva.com/learn/gestalt-theory/.
Chapman, C. (2018, March 27). Exploring the Gestalt Principles of Design. Toptal Design Blog. https://www.toptal.com/designers/ui/gestalt-principles-of-design.
Costantino, J. (2016). Harlem in furs: Race and fashion in the photography of Gordon Parks modernism/modernity. Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/643188/pdf
Doble, R. (2014). Historic Timeline: The capture of movement in painting and photography. Retrieved from https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/34773228/timeline_capture_of_motion_painting_photography.pdf?1411007923=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DHistoric_Timeline_The_Capture_of_Movemen.pdf&Expires=1625013076&Signature=geazaPVSyfKQYtcGqqGhsZS48b~m3dHKAgjWAseT1K-pj6BFLgLzY3lJJi-Gg97ncbLzOXcJsHG5~w2ZxRbtXZMrMW~z6BKMQl0D5ODnsEyJcLgaEfzPRGIKwU7z8kRtxEQpV0GUj7gXDlgwuQDLXeGhEOeka8mOiCCdNdYIFlu8jsMEQcmkzRrcIDjy2Dq6mSS5QR5FDXFpKVC32omqWg2hxWeCBrROHnrg2GmYzf33Pm6XOAmDA2~4wzntmPQOjDoNAQSGcweKI943aq-Jb1ztpK1~30fjWPqQnW4Y1EQ0CWTo9zQyBMeOiVGiXz-jSNKLPXKwvaJAIKoQlHX4wg__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA
Fisher, D. (n/d). A Portrait of African American Photography: Through The Eyes of Gordon Parks. Retrieved from https://uh.edu/honors/Programs-Minors/honors-and-the-schools/houston-teachers-institute/curriculum-units/pdfs/2006/photography/fisher-06-photography.pdf
Kristina E. Mitchell, Amanda Martin-Hamon & Elissa Anderson (2002)
A Choice of Weapons: Photographs of Gordon Parks, Art Education, 55:2, 25-31, DOI:
10.1080/00043125.2002.11651483
Hampton-Smith, S. (2018, December 11). The designer’s guide to Gestalt Theory. Creative Bloq. https://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design/gestalt-theory-10134960.
Laroche, H. (2020). Observation as photography: A metaphor. M@n@gement, 23(3), 79–99. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.37725/mgmt.v23i3.5513
Lien, J., (n.d.). The 4 Principles of Visual Storytelling. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/4-principles-visual-storytelling-jade-lien/.
Walden, S. (2019). Costello on the new theory of photography. Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism, 77(3), 307–311. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/jaac.12649
Shurbaji, E. (2014, December 17). Photo narratives, defining picture stories, essays, and packages. Medium. https://medium.com/learning-journalism-tech/photo-narratives-d77b812f99dd.
Zakia, R. (2004). Gestalt theory. Retrieved from http://www.gestalttheory.net/cms/uploads/pdf/GTHArchive/2004ZakiaPhotography.pdf
