The late Gordon Parks — director, composer, memoirist, and most famously, photographer — once wrote, “Some of us are born to be leaders, some to be followers. Some of us are born with great talents, some with none at all. But what seems to matter far more is that we are born Black. That single fact would control our destiny above all others.” As a nattily dressed, multicultural cognoscenti of photography lovers worked its way through the halls of the Chelsea-based Jack Shainman Gallery in Manhattan, taking in the opening reception for the “Gordon Parks: Born Black” exhibit, many gathered at these words printed onto an ivory wall.
As accurate today as when he penned them, they’re a direct quote from the pages of Parks’s first book to combine his words and images, 1971’s “Born Black: A Personal Report on the Decade of Black Revolt 1960-1970” — a collection of 24 photos and nine essays compiled during his stint as Life magazine’s first African-American staff photographer. The exhibition celebrates the recent publication of an expanded (179 photos) and redesigned edition of the book, edited by the Gordon Parks Foundation with new essays by scholars Nicole R. Fleetwood and Jelani Cobb contextualizing Parks’s work for the modern moment.
Artsy-looking, bohemian-chic visitors stood near the gallery entrance, signing the guest book and chatting; others thumbed through the brand-new “Born Black” displayed at the reception desk. Now the size of a coffee table book, it features Parks’ original insightful essays on Muhammad Ali, Stokely Carmichael, the Black Panther Party and more. His photography, 49 pieces artfully arranged around the gallery, magnetizes attention: Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Jackie Robinson, Kathleen and Eldridge Cleaver, and others, captured beautifully by Parks’s camera.
“I’ve written about Parks in the past and was asked by the foundation to also consider the limitations of the…
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