Gordon Parks is one of my favourite photographers. Not only do I find his images beautiful and enthralling the artist himself astounds me due to his strong sense of social justice and bravery for his work documenting issues on race poverty and civil rights.

Having stumbled across Parks years ago in my own reading around race related issues in America, the first image I ever saw was The Fontenelles at the Poverty Board. The image stuck an accord with me immediately. The composition highlight a distressed family, portraying the story of a seemingly single mother in another hopeless meeting with an official. The light seems to an aura around them, emphasized by the the underexposed man who is thrown out of focus, creating a juxtaposition in what looks like a seemingly hopeless and tiring situation. The light from the window behind them filling the walls around them, separating them from the background and adding to a isolated feeling of no help from the man at the poverty board.

Bessie Fontenelle and Richard Climb the Stairs.

The way Parks see's and uses light to help tell his story, The Fontenelles are a poverty stricken family in the Harlem ghettos in the 60's.

Here we see the mother of the Fontenelle family, Bessie, carrying her son up the stairs. The leading lines of the bannister and paintwork leading the eye directly to her.
She seems to be coming out a darkness and heading towards the light. We see above her on the landing a tricycle followed by more darkness.

This gives me a feeling as if we're seeing just a snapshot, this one moment of a woman working her way back up to her home. The light illuminating the scene for us to see but what came before and will come after is unknown due to the darkness, perhaps reminiscent of Bessie's scenario.

In this image, Little Richard, we see a portrait of one of the Fontenelle children. Presumably lit from window light, the child's expression matches the tone and mood the lighting reflects. He's dimly lit, only a little light shines on his face, perhaps Parks saw this as an representation of the child's future. We see the catchlights in his eyes adding interesting to the image and is maybe representative of the child's spark and innocence still hidden away behind his poverty stricken appearance.

Here we see one of the Fontenelle children doing his school work in bed. The light source seems to be from coming from the cameras direction judging by the shadows cast from the bed frame onto the wall. There seems to be a hazy glow about the light, perhaps the room was rusty or light spilling into the lens from out of frame is causing a flare. The whites of the paper are more exposed than the any other part of the image due to their reflective colour along with the pencil. It could be argued that his education is possible a route to a brighter future.

Parks seems to use light as not only the thing that is allowing him capture the scene but as a tool he is welding to emphasise the story he is trying to tell. His images are all full of contrast ranging from bright highlights to deepest blacks.