The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay
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Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
Dec 2014 back issue
by Gordon Parks
The following images were first created for Parks’ powerful 1956 Life magazine photo essay The Restraints: Open and
Hidden. These rarely seen photographs are now on show at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta from November 15th 2014
to June 7th 2015.
The images were created to document the lives of an extended African-American family in segregated Alabama.
As the first African-American photographer for Life magazine, Parks published some of the 20th century’s most iconic
social justice-themed photo essays and became widely celebrated for his black-and-white photography, the dominant
medium of his era. The photographs that Parks created for Life’s 1956 photo essay The Restraints: Open and Hidden
are remarkable for their vibrant colour and their intimate exploration of shared human experience.
The images provide a unique perspective on one of America’s most controversial periods. Rather than capturing
momentous scenes of the struggle for civil rights, Parks portrayed a family going about daily life in unjust
circumstances. Parks believed empathy to be vital to the undoing of racial prejudice. His corresponding approach to
the Life project eschewed the journalistic norms of the day and represented an important chapter in Parks’ career-long
endeavour to use the camera as his “weapon of choice” for social change.
Following the publication of the Life article, many of the photos Parks shot for the essay were stored away and
presumed lost for more than 50 years until they were rediscovered in 2012 (six years after Parks’ death).
Store Front, Mobile Alabama, 1956, courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks
Foundation.
Ondria Tanner and Her Grandmother Window-Shopping, Mobile, Alabama, 1956,
courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation.
Mr. and Mrs. Albert Thornton, Mobile, Alabama, 1956, courtesy of and copyright The
Gordon Parks Foundation.
Outside Looking In, Mobile, Alabama, 1956, courtesy of and copyright The Gordon
Parks Foundation.
Department Store, Mobile, Alabama, 1956, courtesy of and copyright The Gordon
Parks Foundation.
Airline Terminal, Atlanta, Georgia, 1956, courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks
Foundation.
Willie Causey, Jr. with Gun During Violence in Alabama, Shady Grove, Alabama, 1956,
courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation.
Untitled, Shady Grove, Alabama, 1956, courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks
Foundation.
Untitled, Shady Grove, Alabama, 1956, courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks
Foundation.
Untitled, Shady Grove, Alabama, 1956, courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks
Foundation.
Untitled, Alabama, 1956, courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation.
Untitled, Shady Grove, Alabama, 1956, courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks
Foundation.
