Bare Witness: Photographs by Gordon Parks

October 11, 2008 – January 4, 2009

Gordon Parks, who died in 2006 at age 93, documented crime and poverty, as well as its opposite—glamour. The first African American staff photographer for Life magazine, Parks tackled the harsh truth and dignity of the black urban and rural poor in the United States.  He was also a major fashion photographer, providing spreads for respected magazines such as Vogue.  In addition to his documentary and fashion photography, Parks was a filmmaker, author, musician, and publisher, a renaissance man whose career embodied the American ideal of equality and whose art was bound up with his personal life.

Gordon Parks, “American Gothic,” 1942 Gelatin silver print, 24 x 20 inches Lent by The Capital Group Foundation, 2002.05 © 2006 The Gordon Parks Foundation		Gordon Parks, “Gambling Woman,” 1949 Gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches Lent by The Capital Group Foundation, 2002.31 © 2006 The Gordon Parks Foundation		Gordon Parks, “Muhammad Ali,” 1970 Gelatin silver print, 24 x 20 inches Lent by The Capital Group Foundation, 2002.47 © 2006 The Gordon Parks Foundation

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.