The making of an argument evaluates the editorial decisions made by the magazine and, in doing so, comments on how the context in which a picture is presented can drastically alter its message. In order to meet the expectations set up by the subtitle and the opening text, an overwhelming majority of the pictures selected underscore violence, fear, frustration, aggression, or despair. Of the twenty one images reproduced, only five strike a lighter note, writes russell lord, the curator of photographs at noma.

Lord also notes that the ways the images were cropped and darkened further functioned to convey the magazines intended message. The executive director of the gordon parks foundation, adds, this project digs deep in the foundations archive of contact sheets and unpublished prints 160 and offers a behind the scenes look at life s editorial process and parks unparalleled ability to connect with his subjects on a personal level. This connection is especially apparent in the frames that life did not publish, which paint a much fuller and, in some respects, more positive picture of jacksons life. At each step of the selection processas parks chose each shot, or as the picture editors chose from his selectionany intended narrative was complicated by another editorial voice, writes lord. When readers opened the pages of the magazine, the addition of text, and the readers own biases, further rendered the original argument into a fractured, multilayered affair.

The process raises questions: what was the intended argument? and whose argument was it? all photographs by gordon parks. That the story focused on poverty in latin america mdash and, through parks rsquo lens, focused on poverty in one family in one favela. Or shantytown, in rio de janeiro mdash added a global as well as a deeply human dimension to a story that few american publications of the era could have envisioned, much less pursued. The story that ran in life, ldquo freedom rsquo s fearful foe: poverty, rdquo was remarkable for a variety of reasons, not least of them parks rsquo intimate portraits of the family of jose and nair da silva and their eight children, ranging in age from 12 years to 17 months old. Life showed its readers a frightening, brutal world where the da silva children mdash and, by implication, countless others like them mdash spent their days ldquo penned in their shack built of tin cans and broken orange crates or roaming the foul pathways of the favela where the filth of the inhabitants is tossed out to rot.

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Rdquo at the center of the story was the eldest da silva son, 12 year old flavio after his father was hurt and could not work, the burden of caring for the entire family landed on flavio. His struggle to keep the family afloat, even while he himself was sick mdash and getting sicker mdash is tortuously clear in park rsquo s photos. Here, life.com republishes all of park rsquo s photos from ldquo freedom rsquo s fearful foe, rdquo while also offering a special appreciation of parks by his friend, barbara baker burrows see below. A poet, and a pianist, a classical music composer, and one very at home with the blues. A journalist, a novelist and a man with enough life that even three autobiographies cannot contain the whole, a painter of oils and water colors, and a photographer of street gangs and paris boulevards. It is not simply that he was the first black man to do all these things, but that any man was able to do all these things and do them well. ldquo the anguish which poverty inflicts, rdquo life observed in 1961, ldquo is cruel and varied mdash statistics cannot convey its accumulated torments and degradations.

Rdquo throughout his life, gordon parks sought to put a human face on the grand currents of history, as well as on quieter, more intimate, and often more revelatory moments. The flavio story, in particular, always held a special resonance for parks, as barbara baker burrows explained to life.com: so often, late at night, his piano momentarily silent, gordon rsquo s already tranquil mood would turn reflective. It was perhaps not unexpected for a man of so many accomplishments who had reminisced in several books about the experiences of his life and the lessons he drew from them. Books and photographs and honors were everywhere, and through the sweet smoke of his pipe, the conversation would turn to flavio. he had spotted flavio da silva carrying water on his head, climbing the steep hills of one of rio rsquo s favela s to the shack where, for six days a week, while his mother worked, he cared for his brothers and sisters. Gordon had followed him home and his 1961 essay focused on the 12 year old brazilian boy to personalize the story of south america rsquo s deplorable poverty. in one bed, five of the da silva rsquo s eight children slept with their parents.

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And for flavio, the day rsquo s responsibilities began at dawn mdash despite the bronchial asthma and malnutrition he suffered. gordon suspected tuberculosis. Ldquo but what will they do after? rdquo gordon was careful to ensure that his own presence affected the story as little as possible. He wrestled with the temptation to take food to the struggling family on occasion, so as not to offend them. Some nights he slept on the floor of the family rsquo s shack. although the children lived ten minutes from one of the world rsquo s most famous beaches, they had never set foot on it. it was one of those stories that truly reached life rsquo s readers, and contributions poured in.

A hospital in denver offered to treat flavio, and he received two years of treatment from doctors there. But, so as not to make just one family rich, the money was used to benefit the whole favela . A decade later the last of it helped to set up a medical clinic. flavio survived, and gordon would look back on their time together as ldquo some of the most tender moments of my life. Rdquo ldquo you provided me with a message to give to the rest of the world, rdquo he told flavio, ldquo one that i felt was perhaps the most important message i rsquo ve ever delivered, about caring, about love, and about how one who is close to death has the courage to hold on and encourage other people to live.

Rdquo in 20, for the last issue of the monthly life, i was able to assign gordon to photograph flavio again, now over fifty and with a family of his own. Gordon had never stopped taking care of him he felt that he had received as much from flavio as he had given. as i wrote at the time of his death: ldquo gordon had decades of accomplishment, but he was not finished. Rdquo the story of flavio was just one story, albeit one with special meaning, in his life as a photographer, itself one career in a life of many. Often, his subjects had become a lifetime rsquo s obligation, or as he put it: ldquo i wound up being an objective reporter with a subjective heart.

Rdquo barbara baker burrows left, with gordon parks in 1997 has been associated with life for more than 45 years, assigning and coordinating photography for major events from coverage of the apollo space program to political conventions and the olympics. Among the books she has edited are the new york times best seller, one nation, america remembers september 11, 2001. Photographic biographies the american journey of barack obama bob dylan, forever young and titanic. Aug 20, 2014 updated aug 27, 2014 priscilla frank arts writer, the huffington post going to church. These are the types of everyday, seemingly innocuous activities that wound up before the lens of iconic civil rights photographer gordon parks.

Parks, a self taught artist, believed in the photographic medium as a weapon of change, capable of awakening people's hearts and undoing prejudice. An exhibition of parks' rare color photographs, entitled gordon parks: segregation story, will go on view this fall at the high museum of art in atlanta. The photos capture a particularly disturbing moment in american history, captured via the lives of an african american family, the thorntons, living under jim crow segregation in 1950s alabama. The images, originally titled the restraints: open and hidden, were first taken for a photo essay for life magazine in 1956. The essay chronicles the lesser seen daily effects of racial discrimination, revealing how prejudice pervades even the most banal and personal of daily occurrences. Parks doesn't photograph protests, rallies, acts of violence or momentous milestones in civil rights history. Some photos focus on inequality a colored line at an ice cream stand or black children window shopping amongst all white mannequins.

Others hint ominously at violence, as one child plays with a gun and another examines it solemnly. Such images are especially haunting in retrospect, considering the recent death toll of american black men in this country, over half a century after these photographs were taken. Yet the majority of parks' photos focus on the positive over the negative, showing a different breed of civil rights documentation. Instead of highlighting discrimination here, parks emphasizes the similarities that bind all americans: spending time in the home, being with family, exploring nature. Parks' images revealed what so many americans struggled to understand: the human link that connects us all. More than anything, the 'segregation series' challenged the abiding myth of racism.