Agenda

Gordon Parks: A Choice of Weapons shares its title with Parks’ 1966 autobiography and this exhibition aims to draw out critical questions concerning civil responsibility, human rights and modes of representation. Critically this exhibition highlights how Parks’ photography informed the sense of responsibility he felt and the way he used his position to provide both agency and voice for his people. His immersive photographic narratives opened up dialogue across the difficult cultural, social and political divides that existed in America. An outstanding body of work, it illustrates the way he saw and portrayed families – and others: not as objects of journalistic scrutiny but as unique individuals participating in the telling of their own story.

© Gordon Parks