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Gordon Parks Pittsburgh Grease Plant, 1944/1946 Dan Leers with Philip Brookman ; with additional contributions by Latoya Ruby Frazier, Mark Whitaker ; edited by Dan Leers ; series editor, Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr

Catalog Data

Editor:
Leers, Dan  Search this
Author:
Brookman, Philip  Search this
Author:
Parks, Gordon 1912-2006 Works Selections  Search this
Host institution:
Carnegie Museum of Art  Search this
Organizer:
Gordon Parks Foundation  Search this
Physical description:
221 pages illustrations (some color), color map 30 cm
Type:
Exhibitions
Exhibition catalogs
Place:
Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh
Date:
2022
20th century
Notes:
This publication accompanies the exhibition Gordon Parks in Pittsburgh 1944/1946, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, April 30-August 7, 2022
AAPG copy purchased with funds from the S. Dillon Ripley Endowment
Contents:
Foreword / Eric Crosby and Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr. -- Gordon Parks in World War II Pittsburgh / Mark Whitaker -- A day at the Grease Plant / Dan Leers -- Gordon Parks: work for my people / Philip Brookman -- The self-portrait behind enemy lines / Layota Ruby Frazier
Summary:
"By 1944, Gordon Parks had established himself as a photographer who freely navigated the fields of press and commercial photography, with an unparalleled humanist perspective. That year, Roy Stryker--the former Farm Security Administration official who was now heading the public relations department for the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey)--commissioned Parks to travel to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to document the Penola, Inc. Grease Plant. Employing his signature style, Parks spent two years chronicling the plant's industry--critical to Pittsburgh's history and character--by photographing its workers. The resulting photographs, dramatically staged and lit and striking in their composition, showed the range of activities engaged in by Black and white workers, divided as they were by roles, race and class. The images were used as marketing materials and made available to local and national newspapers, as well as corporate magazines and newsletters. However, they served as much more than documentation of industry, enduring as an exploration of labor and its social and economic ramifications in World War II America by one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Featuring more than 100 photographs, many previously unpublished, this is the first book to focus exclusively on Parks' photographs for the Standard Oil Company, illuminating an important chapter in his career prior to his landmark career as a staff photographer for Life." -- Amazon
Topic:
Documentary photography  Search this
Call number:
TR647.P25 G65 2022
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_1155975