W.M. Hunt

 #somereallygoodones, #gordonparks, #segregationstory, #departmentstorewindow

For fifty years, color photographs by Gordon Parks were out of sight for all intents and purposes.  Much of Parks’ black and white works were exhibited and reproduced and known, but the color work was published in a commission for LIFE Magazine in “Segregation Story” in 1956. Then it went out of sight unless you stumbled on an old issue.  

They are deeply felt time capsule views of Jim Crow Alabama, they are full: the colors and compositions are striking and the scene is pointed as political and social critique.  

The department store image is complicated and difficult to take in on many levels.  The history is condemning with the horrific banality of segregation, the everydayness of it unknowable for a privileged white person — me.  Parks is such a skillful story teller.  Parks captures the sealed off goods, perhaps unavailable for the African-American shopper.  The glass reflection reinforces this distance; the store front is airless, only the adult and child have life.

The palette is muted with pastels of green and red; the little girl wears light brown which sets her apart.  The mannequins have been rendered as pale white, almost alien, ready to launch a zombie attack.  

There are classic department store window photographs by Eugène Atget, Lisette Model and others.  Add this to the list.  

©2021

#somereallygoodones, #theunseeneye, #wmhunt, #collectiondancingbear, #collectionblindpirate, #greatphotographs, #howilookatphotographs, #photographsfromtheunconsicous, #collectingislikerunningaroundinathunderstormhopingyoullbehitbylightning, #aphotographsogooditmakesyoufart- lightning, #photographychangeditlifeitgavemeone, #gordonparks, #segregationstory, #color,