Gordon Parks: American Gothic : Gordon Parks and Ella Watson

An expansive look at one of the greatest American photo series

Gordon Parks’ 1942 portrait of government worker Ella Watson, American Gothic, is among the most celebrated photographs of the 20th century. The photograph not only connects the intimacy of one person’s life with a national state of affairs but also engages with a larger history of American images by referring to and reinterpreting Grant Wood’s celebrated 1930 painting of the same name. Created as part of an extensive collaboration between the photographer and his subject, it is at once a record of one woman’s position within the racial, professional and economic hierarchies that stratified the nation’s capital and Parks’ visual reckoning with the realities of living in racially segregated Washington, D.C.
Through his work with Watson—a custodian in the government building where he worked—Parks composed an intimate portrait of Black life by focusing on everyday activities, from work routines to family meals and church services. The resulting photographs trace a remarkably intimate portrait of Watson as a multidimensional figure, cherished by her community and vitally important within the civic sphere. American Gothic: Gordon Parks and Ella Watson provides a comprehensive overview of this pivotal series of photographs, including more than 50 images—some never before published—and additional archival material.
Gordon Parks (1912–2006) was an acclaimed American photographer and film director prominent in U.S. documentary photojournalism, particularly in issues of civil rights and poverty. His many photographic series include his iconic photos of poor Americans during the 1940s (taken for the Farm Security Administration Program) and his photographic essays for Life magazine. He directed the films Shaft, Shaft’s Big Score and the semiautobiographical The Learning Tree.