Emerging Man
Artist
Gordon Parks
(American, 1912 - 2006)
Date1952
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 14 7/8 x 19 1/8 inches (37.78 x 48.58 cm)
Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Object number2005.27.308
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionImage of a man emerging from an opening in the road; his face is cropped below his nose. Two small bright lights appear on either side of him in the background.Gallery LabelBorn in Fort Scott, Kansas, Gordon Parks became a celebrated photographer, writer, musician and filmmaker. In his work for Life magazine, between 1948 and 1961, he photographed everything from Harlem street gangs to Paris fashions. This image was inspired by Ralph Ellison's great book Invisible Man (1952). Ellison's novel explores the quest for identity of an unnamed African American protagonist who lives alone in an underground room, his invisibility the result of a society that refuses to acknowledge his existence. Parks' photograph of a figure emerging from a manhole-a poetic fiction created in collaboration with Ellison-powerfully evokes this sense of emotional isolation.
Copyright© The Gordon Parks Foundation
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