Photographer Gordon Parks’s career and work are the subject of an exhibition titled “Gordon Parks: Voices in the Mirror” at Jack Shainman Gallery, which runs up through the first week of November.
The Exhibition Details and Guest Contributors
- The exhibition runs through the first week of November at Jack Shainman Gallery, marking the gallery’s fifth show of Parks images.
- Luminaries including Ava DuVernay, Lonnie Ali, Qubilah Shabazz, and Anderson Cooper contributed written texts for the show.
- The display highlights a mix of famous civil rights photography, such as the March on Washington, alongside archival fashion and lesser-known works.
Walking Through the Galleries at Jack Shainman Gallery
It was a brisk afternoon a few weeks after “Gordon Parks: Voices in the Mirror” opened, and Jack Shainman was walking visitors through the exhibition space. The galleries will remain full of iconic Parks photographs up through the first week of November. “I did two shows back-to-back where we showed the fashion and all the unexpected things that people never knew that Gordon did,” Shainman explained during the walkthrough. “And then we flipped it to all the iconic images of the March on Washington. So it was really fun to show people that. I’m always combing through, looking for images that you didn’t know about. It’s harder to do than you think.”
Luminaries Contribute Written Remembrances to the Fifth Show
For this fifth exhibition of Parks images, Shainman asked a number of luminaries—those who worked with Parks, knew Parks, or posed for Parks—to contribute written texts on the great photographer. Ava DuVernay, who worked as a publicist for Parks’s 2000 documentary, Half Past Autumn, penned one of the gallery texts. Lonnie Ali, Muhammad Ali’s widow, and Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, also contributed written pieces for the exhibition.
Anderson Cooper’s Personal Connection to Gordon Parks
Anderson Cooper also contributed a remembrance. While his participation might initially look like the work of a well-known art collector, Cooper shares a much more personal connection to Parks. His mother, the railroad heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, maintained a decades-long romantic relationship with the photographer. Their relationship was nonmonogamous for at least some of the time, and they were open about being open regarding their arrangement.
