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Home>Exhibitions>2024>Gordon Parks: Camera Portraits from the Corcoran Collection

# Gordon Parks: Camera Portraits from the Corcoran Collection

Upcoming Exhibition

## July 14, 2024 – January 12, 2025

See powerful portraits by one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century.

*Gordon Parks: Camera Portraits* looks at a celebrated American photographer and how he forged a new mode of portraiture after World War II. Parks blended a documentary photographer’s desire to place his subjects where they lived and worked with a studio photographer’s attention to dress, character, and expression. In doing so, he believed he could create portraits of individuals that addressed their cultural significance. He applied this approach to such American icons as boxer Muhammad Ali and conductor Leonard Bernstein, as well as to a Harlem gang leader and to a Detroit couple, revealing the humanity and cultural dignity of each person.

This exhibition, drawn primarily from the Corcoran Collection, presents some 25 portraits Parks made between 1941 and 1970. Explore Parks's innovations in portraiture through some of his best-known photographs. Learn how his portraits speak to larger stories of the civil rights movement, the African American experience, and American culture.

## Selected Works

Gordon Parks: Camera Portraits from the Corcoran Collection
Gordon Parks, *Trapped in abandoned building by a rival gang on street, Red Jackson ponders his next move*, 1948, gelatin silver print, Corcoran Collection (The Gordon Parks Collection), 2015.19.4605

Gordon Parks: Camera Portraits from the Corcoran Collection
Gordon Parks, *Husband and Wife, Sunday Morning, Detroit, Michigan (Bert Collins and Pauline Terry)*, 1950, printed later, gelatin silver print, Corcoran Collection (The Gordon Parks Collection), 2016.117.150

Gordon Parks: Camera Portraits from the Corcoran Collection
Gordon Parks, *Pastor Ledbetter, Chicago*, 1953, printed later, gelatin silver print, Corcoran Collection (The Gordon Parks Collection), 2016.117.180

Gordon Parks: Camera Portraits from the Corcoran Collection
Gordon Parks, *Duke Ellington Listening to Playback, Los Angeles*, 1960, printed later, gelatin silver print, Corcoran Collection (The Gordon Parks Collection), 2016.117.214

Gordon Parks: Camera Portraits from the Corcoran Collection
Gordon Parks, *Malcolm X Addressing Black Muslim Rally in Chicago*, 1963, printed later, gelatin silver print, Corcoran Collection (The Gordon Parks Collection), 2016.117.235

Gordon Parks: Camera Portraits from the Corcoran Collection
Gordon Parks, *Muhammad Ali*, 1966, printed later, gelatin silver print, Corcoran Collection (The Gordon Parks Collection), 2016.117.257

Gordon Parks: Camera Portraits from the Corcoran Collection
Gordon Parks, *Flavio da Silva, Rio de Janeiro*, 1961, gelatin silver print, Corcoran Collection (The Gordon Parks Collection), 2015.19.4670

Gordon Parks: Camera Portraits from the Corcoran Collection
Gordon Parks, *Muhammad Ali, London*, 1966, gelatin silver print, Corcoran Collection (The Gordon Parks Collection), 2015.19.4674

Gordon Parks: Camera Portraits from the Corcoran Collection
Gordon Parks, *Self-Portrait*, 1941, gelatin silver print, Purchased as the Gift of Alan and Marsha Paller, Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen and Marc Andreessen via the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Raj and Indra Nooyi, Mitchell P. Rales, David M. Rubenstein, and Darren Walker in honor of Sharon Percy Rockefeller, 2021.61.1

## Dive Deeper

Story
Poet Jason Reynolds Responds to a Photograph by Gordon Parks
The 2020–2022 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and New York Times bestselling author responds to Parks’s *Washington D.C. Government Charwoman (American Gothic)*. 

Educator Resources
Uncovering America: Gordon Parks Photography
Encourage creative, critical, and historical thinking in your students. Featuring introductions, image sets, prompts, and activities for K-12 educators.

Podcast
Sound Thoughts on Art: Daniel Bernard Roumain and “American Gothic”
Composer Daniel Bernard Roumain works with performance poet Lady Caress to respond to Parks’s iconic photograph.

**Organization**                        Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington                    

The exhibition is curated by Sarah Greenough, Senior Curator & Head of the Department of Photographs, National Gallery of Art 

**Passes** Admission is always free and passes are not required

**Banner detail**: Gordon Parks, *Husband and Wife, Sunday Morning, Detroit, Michigan (Bert Collins and Pauline Terry)*,  1950, printed later, gelatin silver print, Corcoran Collection (The Gordon Parks Collection), 2016.117.150

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