Jackson Fine Art is pleased to kick off the 2015 season with a selection of provocative images that both interrogate and celebrate the south. Solo exhibitions by Gordon Parks and Andrew Moore—two artists with a talent for poignantly documenting place—set an incisive gaze on the region, capturing public and private spheres with incredible intimacy. Also exhibited in the viewing room will be a series of Steve Schapiro’s rarely-seen photographs of the Selma-to-Montgomery march.

 

On the heels of current national attention on race and the Oprah Winfrey-produced Martin Luther King, Jr. biopic Selma come Steve Schapiro’s rarely seen photographs of the Selma-to-Montgomery march. An activist as well as a documentarian, Schapiro produced photo-essays covering some of the most turbulent and iconic movements of the 1960’s, the golden age of photojournalism. Freelancing for picture magazines, such as Life, Look, Time, Newsweek, and Vanity Fair, Schapiro was afforded the opportunity to cover many stories related to the Civil Rights Movement, such as the March on Washington, the Selma march for voter registration, and the climate in Memphis following the assassination of Dr. King. In his Selma photographs, marchers such as author James Baldwin, congressman and Atlanta mayor Andrew Young, King advisor Ralph Abernathy, and Atlanta congressman John Lewis appear with nonviolent discipline. These previously unpublished images, recently rediscovered by Schapiro, commemorate Selma and its successful series of marches —the fifty-four-mile march to Montgomery pushed Lyndon Johnson to send voting-rights legislation to Washington— and could serve as inspiration to a new generation of demonstrators. Born and raised in New York City, Steve Schapiro attended Amherst Coll