Gordon Parks: American Gothic: Gordon Parks and Ella Watson

I took [Watson] into this woman’s office and there was the American flag, and I stood her up with her mop hanging down, with the American flag hanging down, Grant Wood style, and did this marvelous portrait, which [Roy] Stryker thought was just about the end. He said, “My God, this can’t be published, but it’s a start.” - Gordon Parks, 1964 American Gothic, Gordon Parks’ 1942 portrait of government worker Ella Watson, is among the most celebrated photographs of the twentieth century. 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 published before, and additional archival material.