Gordon Parks and "Harlem Gang Leader" at NOMA
Visit 1940s-era Harlem in a debut 'Life' magazine photo essay from African American photographer Gordon Parks, a virtual tour from the New Orleans Museum of Art.
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"Red Jackson, Harlem, New York," Gordon Parks, 1948, From the collection of: The Gordon Parks Foundation.
In 1948, Gordon Parks (American, 1912–2006) became the first black photographer to be hired by Life magazine. His first photographic essay, “Harlem Gang Leader” appeared in the November 1st issue. For the project, Parks gained the trust of one particular gang and their leader, Leonard “Red” Jackson (pictured above), and spent six weeks producing a series of pictures of them that are artful, emotive, poignant, touching, and sometimes shocking. From the hundreds of negatives Parks produced, the editors at Life selected only twenty-one pictures to reproduce in the magazine, often cropping or enhancing details in the pictures. This exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art, viewable online due to the COVID-19 crisis, traces what was selected, what was left out, and how the story might be different. It begins with reproductions of the original Life magazine article from 1948. artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/gR1Ft4si.
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