High Museum of Art Presents Works by Gordon Parks & Leonard Freed
Tuesday, February 3 at 4:00 p.m.
Hampton Park Library
Nina Pelaez, Kress Museum Interpretation Fellow at the High Museum of Art will present on the work of Gordon Parks and Leonard Freed, two civil-rights era photographers whose work is currently on view at the High Museum of Art.
Parks and Freed were pioneers in the art of documentary photography, and used their photography as a weapon for social change, particularly in the face of racial inequality. The two photographers’ bodies of work—Parks’ photoessay for Life Magazine, “The Restraints: Open and Hidden” and Freed’s book “Black in White America”— are empathetic, intimate accounts of the daily life, struggles, and triumphs, of African-Americans living during a period of intense social struggle.
Two highlights from the exhibits are below.
Please register here to attend this special presentation.
Gordon Parks: Segregation Story
Gordon Parks
American, 1912–2006 At Segregated Drinking Fountain, Mobile, Alabama, 1956 Promised gift of The Gordon Parks Foundation
The Jim Crow laws established in the South ensured that public amenities remained racially segregated. These laws applied to schools, public transportation, restaurants, recreational facilities, and even drinking fountains, as shown here. The photograph documents the prevalence of such prejudice, while at the same time capturing a scene of compassion. Here, a gentleman helps one of the young girls reach the fountain to have a refreshing drink of water.
Leonard Freed: Black in White America
Leonard Freed Harlem, New York, 1963 Gelatin silver print Collection of Brigitte Freed