Few photographers offer a record of 20th-century life as candid and provocative as Gordon Parks. Born in Fort Scott, Kansas in 1912, he began working professionally in the early 1940s. He generated one of his most enduring images, American Gothic, in 1942 as part of a documentary project in Washington, D.C. The photograph is a reference to Grant Wood's famous painting of the same name and depicts a black cleaning woman holding a broom against a backdrop of an American flag. The image conveys the hardship of the woman's life and the unfulfilled promise of equality for African Americans.

From 1948–1970, Parks served as staff photographer for Life magazine. With a straightforward and sympathetic eye, he investigated a range of pressing social issues including crime and urban decay in Harlem, segregation in Alabama, disease in the slums of Brazil and the struggle for civil rights by the Black Muslims. Parks dramatized these issues through his portrayal of the day-to-day struggles of individuals and families that he grew to know well. Parks firmly believed in the power of the camera to shed light on social inequity.

Throughout his career, Parks also composed images of fashion models, musicians, writers, artists, actors and sports figures for publications such as Vogue. The exhibition features portraits of several celebrities including Ingrid Bergman, Duke Ellington and Muhammad Ali.

Bare Witness: Photographs by Gordon Parks was organized by the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University. The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue are made possible by generous support from The Capital Group Foundation, the Cantor Arts Center's Hohbach Family Fund and Cantor Arts Center's Members. The Exhibition's presentation at the Saint Louis Art Museum is made possible by Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation. Curated in St. Louis by Eric Lutz, assistant curator of prints, drawings and photographs, with the assistance of Alisa Swindell, Romare Bearden fellow, the exhibition will be on view in Gallery 222 through August 3, 2008. -- www.stlouis.art.museum