Gordon Parks: The Atmosphere of Crime, 1957

Description

When Life magazine asked Gordon Parks to illustrate a recurring series of articles on crime in the United States in 1957, he had already been a staff photographer for nearly a decade, the first African American to hold this position. Parks embarked on a six-week journey that took him and a reporter to the streets of New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Unlike much of his prior work, the images made were in color. The resulting eight-page photo-essay "The Atmosphere of Crime" was noteworthy not only for its bold aesthetic sophistication, but also for how it challenged stereotypes about criminality then pervasive in the mainstream media. They provided a richly-hued, cinematic portrayal of a largely hidden world: that of violence, police work and incarceration, seen with empathy and candor. Parks rejected cliches of delinquency, drug use and corruption, opting for a more nuanced view that reflected the social and economic factors tied to criminal behavior and a rare window into the working lives of those charged with preventing and prosecuting it. Transcending the romanticism of the gangster film, the suspense of the crime caper and the racially biased depictions of criminality then prevalent in American popular culture, Parks coaxed his camera to do what it does best: record reality so vividly and compellingly that it would allow Life's readers to see the complexity of these chronically oversimplified situations. The Atmosphere of Crime, 1957 includes an expansive selection of never-before-published photographs from Parks' original reportage. My assignment: explore crime across America. A journey through hell... The year was 1957. I rode with detectives through shadowy districts, climbed fire escapes, broke through windows and doors with them. Brutality was rampant. Violent death showed up from dawn to dawn. Gordon Parks Co-published with The Gordon Parks Foundation and The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Gordon Parks was born into poverty and segregation in Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1912. An itinerant laborer, he worked as a brothel pianist and railcar porter, among other jobs, before buying a camera at a pawnshop, training himself, and becoming a photographer. In addition to his storied tenures photographing for the Farm Security Administration (1941-45) and Life magazine (1948-72), Parks evolved into a modern-day Renaissance man, finding success as a film director, writer and composer. The first African-American director to helm a major motion picture, he helped launch the blaxploitation genre with his film Shaft (1971). He wrote numerous memoirs, novels and books of poetry, and received many awards, including the National Medal of Arts and more than 50 honorary degrees. Parks died in 2006.

Gordon Parks was the Godfather of Cool. His gifts propelled him to a pioneering career as a photographer and filmmaker. His taste made him an enduring avatar of style.--Guy Trebay "New York Times" Gordon Parks's photographs bear powerful witness to Black lives in America...--Cassie Packard "Apollo" In 1957, as the first African American Staff Photographer for Life Magazine, Gordon Parks, set off on his six-week journey to bring a unique view of Poverty, Crime and Humanity to his readers from the Streets of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. Parks, well know for his trail-blazing blaxploitation films like Shaft (1971), shook audiences with his eight page essay originally published as "The Atmosphere of Crime" and now for the first time, the secret world on the fringes of society can be seen in Color featuring Photographs by Gordon Parks never seen before. Parks reveals a complex society, an American Culture of vivid and empathetic imagery.--Editors "Musee" Offer[s] groundbreaking insight into the era's methods of policing. Most notably, the manner in which Parks approached his subjects set a new standard for crime scene photojournalism -- presumed criminals were documented with an obvious sense of anonymity to protect their innocence until proven guilty, while police officers were captured with striking clarity to crystalize their identities and tactics.--Kate Bubacz "BuzzFeed" Parks, then a staff photographer, shadowed detectives in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, recording patrol cars, dark streets, raids, arrests, heroin injections, morgues, prisons. He deploys bright patches of color against mostly dark backgrounds, along with artful lighting and cropping, to suggest the ubiquitousness of the machinery of crime. The photos are undeniably authentic and specific, but suspects' faces are blurred while the gestures are broad, making them seem archetypal.--Luc Sante "New York Times" Parks' photographs shine a spotlight on criminal justice and race relations circa 1957, cutting through the darkness to highlight how much has changed, and how much hasn't. Steidl's production is top-notch as usual, reproducing Parks' Kodachromes with understated fidelity. By the time the reader reaches the concluding section, a facsimile spread of the original Life magazine essay, it feels as if something inside has shifted.--Blake Andrews "Photo Eye" Revisit the colour photos taken by Life's first African-American staff photographer for a 1957 series about crime. Featuring many previously unpublished photographs from his original reportage, the images challenge prevailing and racially biased assumptions around criminality and incarceration.--Nathalie Atkinson "Globe and Mail" He was really a Renaissance man. Part of the mission of the foundation in keeping him relevant today is showing him as a really important American artist who was successful in bridging the gap between creating work that educated but was at the same time artistic, regardless of the medium. I--Yinka Elujuba "Brooklyn Rail" There is no question that the book is relevant today amid far-reaching conversations on policing in America. But to say that this book is prescient or timely is ultimately reductive--labeling it so merely reflects the white gaze. As the essays elucidate, the problems of crime and over-policing in disenfranchised communities have existed for centuries.--Re'al Christian "Brooklyn Rail" The Atmosphere of Crime, 1957 traces Park's' early reportage as Life magazine's first black staff photographer. From across the US, Parks published image after image of black poverty, marginalization, addiction--and the constant, leering presence of police violence. Sixty years on, his images continue to offer a counter-narrative to enduring and racist representation of black lives.-- "Art Newspaper" [P]rovides an in-depth study of this historic body of work [...] Parks' photographs told a different story, one that examined the underlying suffering, despair and fear of marginalized groups further exacerbated by police and prisons--Miss Rosen "TIME" The Atmosphere of Crime features a selection of previously unpublished photographs from the series, as well as the original images that made up the searing Life story. Parks was tasked with investigating crime in the US and took photographs...a series looking at racial inequality in the USA...--Belle Hutton "AnOther" With his camera, Gordon Parks humanized the Black people others saw as simply criminals...Parks's photographs present a more insightful, delicate and disinterested view. They remind us that an atmosphere is not the same as a narrative. One is complex, pervasive, inchoate and, like a fog, it can lift. The other is linear. Like an obsession, it keeps corkscrewing ahead, leaving all kinds of damage in its wake.--Sebastian Smee "Washington Post" Amid protests over the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade and others--and a national reckoning with police brutality and institutional racism--the work of mid-century photographer Gordon Parks, who died in 2006, feels pressing, with a newly released monograph that depicts racial injustice with urgent, aesthetic power.--Jacoba Urist "Cultured" As a visual technician, Parks was superb. Working mostly at night and in shifting chaotic scenes, he possessed a knack for clarity built on years of photojournalistic practice.--Blake Andrews "Collector Daily" Avoiding the hyper stylised noir aesthetics that defined popular depictions of gang life at the time, Parks created an intimate portrait of the harrowing reality for Black families systematically cut off from equal opportunities for employment, housing, education, and health. But the truth about Black lives did not resonate with his editors [at LIFE], who reframed the piece around a sensationalistic narrative of "urban violence" which still persists today. It wasn't until 2017, 11 years after Parks' death, that the work was finally reexamined in Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument (Steidl), a book exploring the vast discrepancy between the media's distorted, fear mongering edit, and the artist's vision, which had been erased.--Miss Rosen "Dazed" Gordon Parks, Life magazine's first black photographer, revolutionized what a crime photo could look like...These are not only the most beautiful crime photos you have ever seen, but, quite possibly, the most important.--Bill Shapiro "Atlantic" This slim, well-timed volume revisits a series that the 'Life' photographer shot in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, which subtly reframed the narrative around incarceration and crime. Published by Steidl and the Gordon Parks Foundation, in collaboration with MoMA, the book features essays that connect the historical dots, along with Parks's photos of a still-changing world.--Laura Regensdorf "Vanity Fair" Noteworthy for its bold aesthetic and sophistication...challenge[s] pervasive stereotypes about criminality in mainstream media.-- "L'Oeil de la Photographie" The series, when published, exposed mainstream understandings of black poverty, marginalisation and, crucially, how black citizens were treated by US police. They served to counteract enduring media stereotypes of black criminality, forcing the readers of Life to reassess their beliefs about an experience that even today garners little attention in US media.--Tom Seymour "Art Newspaper" Photographer Gordon Parks took a six-week journey throughout the US, from New York to Chicago to San Francisco to Los Angeles, to portray an unseen picture of crime in the country for Life Magazine in 1957... The photographs provided a richly-hued, cinematic portrayal of a largely hidden world of violence, police work, and incarceration, depicted with empathy and candor... Parks rejected cliches of delinquency, drug use, and corruption, instead opting for a more nuanced view of the social and economic factors tied to criminal behaviour.--Editors "Guardian"