Red Jackson, Harlem, New York

Gordon Parks

1948 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

The most prominent African-American photographer and journalist of the 1950s and 1960s, Gordon Parks has documented the experiences of under-represented people and communities throughout his career, while simultaneously producing celebrity portraiture, fashion photographs, and news pictures. This image of Harlem gang leader Red Jackson looking pensively out of a broken window at his "turf" is one of a series Parks made for Life magazine in 1948. The photo essay was the first to look closely and soberly at the reality of life in Harlem at mid-century, and, in that respect, anticipates the more strident civil rights exposés by Parks and other photojournalists in the 1960s.

Artist

Gordon Parks

Date

1948

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gift of Photography in the Fine Arts, 1959