American Gothic

American Gothic, Gordon Parks’ 1942 portrait of government worker Ella Watson, is among the most celebrated photographs of the twentieth century. Created as part of an extensive collaboration between the photographer and his subject, it is at once a record of one woman’s position within the racial, professional and economic hierarchies that stratified the nation’s capital and Parks’ visual reckoning with the realities of living in racially segregated Washington, D.C.
Through his work with Watson—a custodian in the government building where he worked—Parks composed an intimate portrait of Black life by focusing on everyday activities, from work routines to family meals and church services. The resulting photographs trace a remarkably intimate portrait of Watson as a multidimensional figure, cherished by her community and vitally important within the civic sphere.

Text by Philip Brookman, Melanee C. Harvey, Hank Willis Thomas, Salamishah Tillet and Deborah Willis