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Image Copyright Restricted

Untitled (Outside the Liberty Theater)

Gordon Parks (American, 1912–2006)
1950

Medium/Technique Photograph, gelatin silver print
Dimensions Image/Sheet: 34.2 x 23.4 cm (13 7/16 x 9 3/16 in.)
Credit Line Sophie M. Friedman Fund
Accession Number2002.110
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAmericas, Photography
ClassificationsPhotographs
Gordon Parks—best known as a photojournalist , but also active as a filmmaker, poet, novelist, and musician—once described his camera as a "weapon against poverty and racism." Parks began a decades long career at Life magazine in 1948, where he gained a reputation for his sensitive portrayals of the human condition. This is one of five Parks photographs owned by the MFA. It depicts a black couple outside a segregated cinema ironically called the Liberty Theater.

Inscriptionsverso: Life photography stamp, dated June 7 1950 and notations GPar822
ProvenanceHoward Greenberg Gallery, NY; G.W. Einstein Co., New York; 2002 sold to MFA
CopyrightCourtesy and copyright of The Gordon Parks Foundation.