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Clth, 9.75 x 11.5 in. / 168 pgs / 60 color / 10 bw. PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 6/16/2020
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ISBN 9783958296961 TRADE
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| | | Gordon Parks: The Atmosphere of Crime, 1957Edited with text by Sarah Hermanson Meister. Foreword by Peter W. Kunhardt Jr., Glenn D. Lowry. Text by Nicole Fleetwood, Bryan Stevenson.
 Gordon Parks’ ethically complex depictions of crime in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, with previously unseen photographsA New York Times Book Review 2020 holiday gift guide pick
When Life magazine asked Gordon Parks to illustrate a recurring series of articles on crime in the United States in 1957, he had already been a staff photographer for nearly a decade, the first African American to hold this position. Parks embarked on a six-week journey that took him and a reporter to the streets of New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Unlike much of his prior work, the images made were in color. The resulting eight-page photo-essay “The Atmosphere of Crime” was noteworthy not only for its bold aesthetic sophistication, but also for how it challenged stereotypes about criminality then pervasive in the mainstream media. They provided a richly hued, cinematic portrayal of a largely hidden world: that of violence, police work and incarceration, seen with empathy and candor.
Parks rejected clichés of delinquency, drug use and corruption, opting for a more nuanced view that reflected the social and economic factors tied to criminal behavior and afforded a rare window into the working lives of those charged with preventing and prosecuting it. Transcending the romanticism of the gangster film, the suspense of the crime caper and the racially biased depictions of criminality then prevalent in American popular culture, Parks coaxed his camera to record reality so vividly and compellingly that it would allow Life’s readers to see the complexity of these chronically oversimplified situations. The Atmosphere of Crime, 1957 includes an expansive selection of never-before-published photographs from Parks’ original reportage.
Gordon Parks was born into poverty and segregation in Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1912. An itinerant laborer, he worked as a brothel pianist and railcar porter, among other jobs, before buying a camera at a pawnshop, training himself and becoming a photographer. He evolved into a modern-day Renaissance man, finding success as a film director, writer and composer. The first African-American director to helm a major motion picture, he helped launch the blaxploitation genre with his film Shaft (1971). Parks died in 2006.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Gordon Parks: The Atmosphere of Crime, 1957.'PRAISE AND REVIEWSof the machinery of crime. The photos are undeniably authentic and specific, but suspects’ faces are blurred while the gestures are broad, making them seem archetypal.BuzzFeed Kate Bubacz Offer[s] groueductive—labeling it so merely reflects the white gaze. As the essays elucidate, the problems of crime and over-policing in disenfranchised communities have existed for centuries. New York Times Luc Sante Parks, then a staff photographer, shadowed detectives in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, recording patrol cars, dark streets, raids, arrests, heroin injections, morgues, prisons. He deploys bright patches of color against mostly dark backgrounds, along with artful lighting and cropping, to suggest the ubiquitousness of the machinery of crime. The photos are undeniably authentic and specific, but suspects’ faces are blurred while the gestures are broad, making them seem archetypal. BuzzFeed Kate Bubacz Offer[s] groueductive—labeling it so merely reflects the white gaze. As the essays elucidate, the problems of crime and over-policing in disenfranchised communities have existed for centuries. New York Times Luc Sante Parks, then a staff photographer, shadowed detectives in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, recording patrol cars, dark streets, raids, arrests, heroin injections, morgues, prisons. He deploys bright patches of color against mostly dark backgrounds, along with artful lighting and cropping, to suggest the ubiquitousness of the machinery of crime. The photos are undeniably authentic and specific, but suspects’ faces are blurred while the gestures are broad, making them seem archetypal. BuzzFeed Kate Bubacz Offer[s] groueductive—labeling it so merely reflects the white gaze. As the essays elucidate, the problems of crime and over-policing in disenfranchised communities have existed for centuries. New York Times Luc Sante Parks, then a staff photographer, shadowed detectives in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, recording patrol cars, dark streets, raids, arrests, heroin injections, morgues, prisons. He deploys bright patches of color against mostly dark backgrounds, along with artful lighting and cropping, to suggest the ubiquitousness of the machinery of crime. The photos are undeniably authentic and specific, but suspects’ faces are blurred while the gestures are broad, making them seem archetypal. BuzzFeed Kate Bubacz Offer[s] groueductive—labeling it so merely reflects the white gaze. As the essays elucidate, the problems of crime and over-policing in disenfranchised communities have existed for centuries. New York Times Luc Sante Parks, then a staff photographer, shadowed detectives in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, recording patrol cars, dark streets, raids, arrests, heroin injections, morgues, prisons. He deploys bright patches of color against mostly dark backgrounds, along with artful lighting and cropping, to suggest the ubiquitousness of the machinery of crime. The photos are undeniably authentic and specific, but suspects’ faces are blurred while the gestures are broad, making them seem archetypal. BuzzFeed Kate Bubacz Offer[s] groueductive—labeling it so merely reflects the white gaze. As the essays elucidate, the problems of crime and over-policing in disenfranchised communities have existed for centuries. New York Times Luc Sante Parks, then a staff photographer, shadowed detectives in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, recording patrol cars, dark streets, raids, arrests, heroin injections, morgues, prisons. He deploys bright patches of color against mostly dark backgrounds, along with artful lighting and cropping, to suggest the ubiquitousness of the machinery of crime. The photos are undeniably authentic and specific, but suspects’ faces are blurred while the gestures are broad, making them seem archetypal. BuzzFeed Kate Bubacz Offer[s] groueductive—labeling it so merely reflects the white gaze. As the essays elucidate, the problems of crime and over-policing in disenfranchised communities have existed for centuries. New York Times Luc Sante Parks, then a staff photographer, shadowed detectives in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, recording patrol cars, dark streets, raids, arrests, heroin injections, morgues, prisons. He deploys bright patches of color against mostly dark backgrounds, along with artful lighting and cropping, to suggest the ubiquitousness of the machinery of crime. The photos are undeniably authentic and specific, but suspects’ faces are blurred while the gestures are broad, making them seem archetypal. BuzzFeed Kate Bubacz Offer[s] groueductive—labeling it so merely reflects the white gaze. As the essays elucidate, the problems of crime and over-policing in disenfranchised communities have existed for centuries. New York Times Luc Sante Parks, then a staff photographer, shadowed detectives in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, recording patrol cars, dark streets, raids, arrests, heroin injections, morgues, prisons. He deploys bright patches of color against mostly dark backgrounds, along with artful lighting and cropping, to suggest the ubiquitousness of the machinery of crime. The photos are undeniably authentic and specific, but suspects’ faces are blurred while the gestures are broad, making them seem archetypal. BuzzFeed Kate Bubacz Offer[s] groueductive—labeling it so merely reflects the white gaze. As the essays elucidate, the problems of crime and over-policing in disenfranchised communities have existed for centuries. New York Times Luc Sante Parks, then a staff photographer, shadowed detectives in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, recording patrol cars, dark streets, raids, arrests, heroin injections, morgues, prisons. He deploys bright patches of color against mostly dark backgrounds, along with artful lighting and cropping, to suggest the ubiquitousness of the machinery of crime. The photos are undeniably authentic and specific, but suspects’ faces are blurred while the gestures are broad, making them seem archetypal. BuzzFeed Kate Bubacz Offer[s] groundbreaking insight into the era's methods of policing. Most notably, the manner in which Parks approached his subjects set a new standard for crime scene photojournalism — presumed criminals were documented with an obvious sense of anonymity to protect their innocence until proven guilty, while police officers were captured with striking clarity to crystalize their identities and tactics. Photo Eye Blake Andrews Parks’ photographs shine a spotlight on criminal justice and race relations circa 1957, cutting through the darkness to highlight how much has changed, and how much hasn’t. Steidl’s production is top-notch as usual, reproducing Parks’ Kodachromes with understated fidelity. By the time the reader reaches the concluding section, a facsimile spread of the original Life magazine essay, it feels as if something inside has shifted. Globe and Mail Nathalie Atkinson Revisit the colour photos taken by Life’s first African-American staff photographer for a 1957 series about crime. Featuring many previously unpublished photographs from his original reportage, the images challenge prevailing and racially biased assumptions around criminality and incarceration. Musee Editors In 1957, as the first African American Staff Photographer for Life Magazine, Gordon Parks, set off on his six-week journey to bring a unique view of Poverty, Crime and Humanity to his readers from the Streets of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. Parks, well know for his trail-blazing blaxploitation films like Shaft (1971), shook audiences with his eight page essay originally published as “The Atmosphere of Crime” and now for the first time, the secret world on the fringes of society can be seen in Color featuring Photographs by Gordon Parks never seen before. Parks reveals a complex society, an American Culture of vivid and empathetic imagery. Apollo Cassie Packard Gordon Parks’s photographs bear powerful witness to Black lives in America... New York Times Guy Trebay Gordon Parks was the Godfather of Cool. His gifts propelled him to a pioneering career as a photographer and filmmaker. His taste made him an enduring avatar of style. |
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| | FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 10/17/2020 "Crime Suspect with Gun, Chicago, Illinois" (1957) is reproduced from Gordon Parks: The Atmosphere of Crime, 1957, back in stock at last. "In this short series for Life, shot over six weeks and consisting of a few dozen images, Parks deftly captured the processes of criminalization, policing, arrest, and imprisonment," Nicole Fleetwood writes. "His photos allowed readers in the 1950s (and permit contemporary audiences) to see the steps along these processes—complete with officers on their beat looking for suspicious activity, the shakedown of criminal suspects, the administrative procedures of arrest and fingerprinting, and finally the bars and walls of prison, in this case San Quentin in California… Parks’s photographs foreshadow what will unfold in the coming decades, as civil rights activists and social movements make greater demands for equal rights, access, and justice, and as policing grows more aggressive and prisons more punitive. Seeing these images, we might ask what lessons we can learn from The Atmosphere of Crime to address the massive and brutal prison system we have inherited." continue to blog | |  | Steidl/The Gordon Parks FoundationISBN: 9783969992289
USD $65.00 | CAN $88Pub Date: 6/25/2024
Forthcoming
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|  | Steidl/The Gordon Parks Foundation/Minneapolis Institute of ArtISBN: 9783969992517
USD $65.00 | CAN $95Pub Date: 4/23/2024
Active | In stock
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|  | Steidl/The Gordon Parks Foundation/Museum of Fine Arts, HoustonISBN: 9783969990940
USD $50.00 | CAN $68Pub Date: 9/27/2022
Active | Out of stock
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|  | Steidl/The Gordon Parks FoundationISBN: 9783969990261
USD $65.00 | CAN $88Pub Date: 9/27/2022
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|  | Steidl/The Gordon Parks Foundation/Carnegie Museum of ArtISBN: 9783969990056
USD $65.00 | CAN $88Pub Date: 6/28/2022
Active | Out of stock
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|  | Steidl/The Gordon Parks FoundationISBN: 9783958296961
USD $50.00 | CAN $65Pub Date: 6/16/2020
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|  | Steidl/The Gordon Parks Foundation/The Nelson-Atkins Museum of ArtISBN: 9783958296190
USD $55.00 | CAN $75Pub Date: 2/11/2020
Active | Out of stock
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|  | Steidl/Gordon Parks Foundation/National Gallery of ArtISBN: 9783958294943
USD $65.00 | CAN $92Pub Date: 11/20/2018
Active | Out of stock
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|  | Steidl/The Gordon Parks FoundationISBN: 9783958293441
USD $65.00 | CAN $87Pub Date: 5/22/2018
Active | Out of stock
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|  | Steidl/The Gordon Parks Foundation/C/O BerlinISBN: 9783958291829
USD $50.00 | CAN $67.5Pub Date: 11/22/2016
Active | Out of stock
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|  | Steidl/The Gordon Parks Foundation/The Art Institute of ChicagoISBN: 9783958291096
USD $45.00 | CAN $60Pub Date: 6/28/2016
Active | Out of stock
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|  | SteidlISBN: 9783869305301
USD $185.00 | CAN $250Pub Date: 11/30/2012
Active | In stock
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|  | SteidlISBN: 9783869307213
USD $40.00 | CAN $54Pub Date: 10/1/2013
Active | Out of stock
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|  | SteidlISBN: 9783869306025
USD $40.00 | CAN $54Pub Date: 1/15/2013
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