Gordon Parks, Untitled, Mobile, Alabama (1956), on view in Gordon Parks: The South in Colour at Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta (until 11 July)
A Choice of Weapons was the title Gordon Parks gave to his 1965 memoir. Much as Woody Guthrie said that his guitar was a machine that kills fascists, Parks used his camera to expose and combat racism. In this photograph, an African American man escorts three small children between fences marking off a park that, as the sign unambiguously states, is "White Only". And indeed, a white woman in the background seems to be heading toward a cordoned-off tennis court. The civil rights movement was just beginning when Parks made this photograph. The ensuing turmoil and violence are foretold in the tension beneath the false calm in this poignant photograph.
