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Red Jackson, Harlem, New York

Gordon Parks American
1948
Not on view
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Red Jackson, Harlem, New York
  • Artist: Gordon Parks (American, Fort Scott, Kansas 1912–2006 New York)
  • Date: 1948
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: Image: 19 1/8 × 15 9/16 in. (48.5 × 39.6 cm)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Gift of Photography in the Fine Arts, 1959
  • Object Number: 59.559.58
  • Rights and Reproduction: Courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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