Harlem – Gang Warfare

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Gordon Parks, Harlem--Gang Warfare, 1948, printed 1950s, gelatin silver print, sheet and image: 19 ¹⁄₈ x 15 ¹⁄₈ in. (48.5 x 38.3 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, 1998.121.3, © 1948, Gordon Parks Foundation

Artwork Details

Title: Harlem – Gang Warfare
Artist: Gordon Parks
Date: 1948, printed 1950s
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: sheet and image: 19 ¹⁄₈ x 15 ¹⁄₈ in. (48.5 x 38.3 cm.)
Copyright: © 1948, Gordon Parks Foundation
Credit Line: Museum purchase through the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
Mediums Description: gelatin silver print
Classifications: Photography
Photoprint
Subjects: Figure group — male
Cityscape — New York — New York
African American
State of being — evil — violence
Cityscape — New York — Harlem
Object Number: 1998.121.3
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1998.121.3

Artwork Description

In 1948, Parks approached Life magazine with a proposal to do a freelance story on Harlem’s gangs. Editors were fascinated and offered Parks two hundred dollars to do the piece. “Harlem Gang Leader Red Jackson’s Life is One of Fear, Frustration and Violence” was a dramatic and poignant story told through unforgettable images and extended captions. Light barely touches the shadowy figures in Harlem – Gang Warfare, one of the photographs included in the essay. Shot from below, the picture captures the aggression but also the vulnerability of the young gang members.

African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, 2012