Bare Witness: Photographs by Gordon Parks

October 11, 2008 – January 4, 2009

This retrospective exhibition features 73 works selected by Gordon Parks (1912 – 2006) as examples of his most potent imagery. After rising as a portrait and fashion photographer, Parks also began documenting social ills as part of the Farm Security Administration. In 1948, he became the first African American staff photographer for Life magazine and established an international reputation for his photo essays chronicling the lives of the poor and the Civil Rights movement. He was also an author (The Learning Tree), filmmaker (Shaft), poet, and musician, a renaissance man whose career embodies the American ideal of equality.



American Gothic, 1942 Gordon Parks (1912-2006) Gelatin silver print, 24 x 20 inches Lent by The Capital Group Foundation © 2006 Gordon Parks	Gambling Woman, 1949 Gordon Parks (1912-2006) Gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches Lent by The Capital Group Foundation © 2006 Gordon Parks	Muhammad Ali, 1970 Gordon Parks (1912-2006) Gelatin silver print, 24 x 20 inches Lent by The Capital Group Foundation © 2006 Gordon Parks



*Ingrid Bergman at Stromboli,* 1949 Gordon Parks (1912-2006) Gelatin silver print, 16 x 20 inches Lent by The Capital Group Foundation © 2006 Gordon Parks

Organizer & Sponsors

Bare Witness: Photographs by Gordon Parks was organized by the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University. The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue are made possible by generous support from The Capital Group Foundation, the Cantor Arts Center’s Hohbach Family Fund, and Cantor Arts Center’s Members.

Presented in Delaware by

This exhibition is presented in Delaware by DuPont and J.P. Morgan. | In Delaware, this exhibition is made possible, in part, by grants from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.