143
Gordon Parks
American, 1912-2006
"Bessie And Little Richard (Fontenelle) The Morning After She Scalded Her Husband, Harlem, New York"
silver gelatin print
printed 1990s from a 1967 negative, signed lower right en verso.
Matted, glazed and framed.
sight 11-7/8" x 17-1/2", framed 18-1/4" x 23-3/4"
Estimate: $2,000 - $4,000
Current Bid: $1,600
(1 Bid)
$1,600 USD
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Modern & Contemporary Art + Design
April 18, 2024 10:00 AM CDT
Live Auction
New Orleans, LA, US
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Additional Details
Provenance: From the Estate of the artist.
I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera.
Gordon Parks
The photograph offered here was a part of a larger, multi-part 1968 LIFE magazine editorial on the plight of impoverished African Americans in the country's largest cities. Parks, at the time the only African American staff photographer at the magazine, chose to follow the Fontenelle family of eleven – British West Indian immigrant father Richard, mother Bessie and their nine children; the youngest being 3-year old Little Richard. Facing unemployment and increasingly frustrated by his inability to support his children, Richard frequently drank and became violent. Parks spent weeks following the family, capturing its members at some of their most fragile and vulnerable moments. Never losing his empathy, the resulting images are haunting and moving. In a somewhat unusual move for Parks, he was so affected by what he saw that he penned an introduction to the photos:
I too am America. America is me. It gave me the only life I know – so I must share in its survival. Look at me. Listen to me. Try to understand my struggle against your racism. There is yet a chance for us to live in peace beneath these restless skies.
The full LIFE Magazine article with photographs is accessible at gordonparksfoundation.org
Condition:
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