The two images I chose are Margaret Bourke-White’s “At the Time of the Louisville Flood” and Gordon Parks “American Gothic”. I chose “At the Time of the Louisville Flood” because of the stark reality of the imagery and the sharp contrast of the whiteness of the American family with a white dog included framed against the African-Americans standing in line waiting for relief. The billboard proclaims the World’s Highest Standard of Living, but I don’t believe the African-American’s standing in line would agree. The billboard’s slogan suggests the American Way is for the white family and does not include the black family. There is a clear line drawn in the framing of the image between the joy of the white family and the despair of the African-Americans waiting for relief. The focus is clearly on the white family and not on the African-Americans. The angle is also important as the white family is shown above the line of the African-Americans. The costumes are also significant as the white family is dressed affluently probably middle class or upper middle class and the African-Americans are all wearing long dark colored coats. Ronald Takaki in “A Different Mirror” quotes that the black worker was the “surplus man, the last to be hired and the first to be fired.” Blacks faced starvation and reluctantly turned to public relief.
Margaret Bourke-White was a celebrated photographer in the 1930’s; she succeeded in a male-dominated profession and was the first photographer for Fortune Magazine in 1930. She also captured an unforgettable image of the Fort Peck Dam that was used in the premier issue of Life magazine. Margaret Bourke-White was an amazing woman; she was the first woman to fly on a combat bombing mission during WWII and was fearless taking pictures of the German bombing of Moscow. Bourke-White captured images of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp during WWII bearing witness to one of history’s most barbaric slaughters. Bourke-White also blended commerce and art in an advertisement for the “Russell Birdsall & Ward Bolt & Nut Company. Her photographic style can be described as the f/64 group that Edward Weston and Ansel Adams made famous. Most of her photographs are a gelatin silver print. In 1937 when Bourke-White did “At the Time of the Louisville Flood” it became a symbolic image of the Great Depression. The happy white family oblivious to the line of African-Americans waiting for relief is about to figuratively run them over in their brand new car.
The second image I chose was Gordon Parks “American Gothic” I found this image to be provocative because of the way the American flag is framed in the background. Is this picture taken in 1942 the image we wish to convey during a time of war? The costume is also significant as it appears to be a uniform representing servitude. Gordon Parks later tells us it is a portrait of a government cleaning lady named Ella Watson. Parks used “American Gothic” to describe how he felt about America and Ella Watson’s position inside America. Richard Dyer would describe this as whiteness being evident in superiority without ever being shown in the picture. Ella Watson is not only in servitude to a white person but the entire white government. This is not only subjection by race alone but also by gender as some men believe that women are supposed to be holding a broom and a mop. Ronald Takaki in “A Different Mirror” discusses how the New Deal by Franklin Roosevelt was a new deal for the whites only and a raw deal for blacks. The National Recovery Administration or NRA which was established to protect black workers from discrimination in employment was often referred to as “Negroes Ruined Again” or “Negro Removal Act” by African-Americans. Ella Watson standing with an American flag in the background epitomized the disappointment in the Roosevelt Administration.
Gordon Parks was the youngest of 15 children and was told by a white teacher not to waste his families’ money on a college education because he would probably just wind up as a porter anyway. Parks just recently received his 45th doctorate from Princeton University. When Parks was 16 and homeless he found a portfolio inside of a magazine documenting the living conditions of migrant workers. The portfolio inspired him to buy his first camera and use it as a weapon against poverty and racism. In 1941 Parks was the first photographer to receive a fellowship from the Julius Rosenwald Foundation and started working for Roy Stryker at the photography section of the Farm Security Administration or FSA. The FSA was a part of the New Deal initiated by Franklin Roosevelt to combat poverty. The FSA planned to help poor farmers by purchasing their non productive land and placing them in group farms on better land for more efficient farming. The FSA was criticized by the Farm Bureau as an experiment in collectivizing agriculture. The FSA exists today as the Farmers Home Administration. The FSA hired Gordon Parks and others to report and document the plight of the poor farmer. It was at the FSA in Washington D.C. where Parks took his first professional photograph “American Gothic”. “American Gothic” was originally a painting by American artist Grant Wood. It is a depiction of a farmer and a woman standing in front of a farmhouse in Iowa. The man holds a pitchfork symbolizing hard labor and the woman’s colonial print apron suggests domesticity. It is as much of a symbol of the whiteness of America as Ella Watson is a symbol of the plight of African-Americans. During the Great Depression “American Gothic” by Wood became a symbol of the American spirit. The photograph of Ella Watson was a parody of the original “American Gothic” but still became an iconic symbol of America.
In conclusion I chose “American Gothic” by Gordon Parks and “At the Time of the Louisville Flood” by Margaret Bourke-White because they depict how the American Dream is usually a depiction of the whiteness of the nation and how it does not include all peoples. I believe they also depict the racial tension that still exists in America in the 21st century. The images portrayed by Parks and Bourke-White are both timeless and reminders of our past before the Civil Rights Act. They are images to warn us of the dangers of stereotyping and labeling one race as superior and another as inferior. It is these images that I will use to remind me that racism still exists today and that only through understanding that we all are a part of the human race can we imagine living in a world without racism.
David Schiff
Film 150
10/10/09
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