Boy with June Bug, Fort Scott, Kansas

© The Gordon Parks Foundation

Boy with June Bug, Fort Scott, Kansas

Currently not on view

Boy with June Bug, Fort Scott, Kansas,

1963, printed 2014

Gordon Parks, 1912–2006; born Fort Scott, KS; died New York, NY; active New York, NY
2017-190
By the 1960s, having produced fashion, news, and portrait photographs for various publications, Parks set his sights on documenting social issues. As a staff photographer for Life magazine, he published many photo-essays, including “How It Feels to Be Black” (1963). Based on his first novel, a semiautobiographical story of an African American boy growing up in Parks’s hometown of Fort Scott, Kansas, the photo-essay illustrates experiences both positive, such as the moment of summertime leisure pictured here, and negative, including the impact of racism on the boy’s family. Through his work for Life, Parks offered readers a personal point of entry for the issue of racism, presented in ways they could relate to and empathize with.

Information

Title
Boy with June Bug, Fort Scott, Kansas
Dates

1963, printed 2014

Maker
Gordon Parks
Medium
Inkjet print
Dimensions
image: 30.2 × 45.5 cm (11 7/8 × 17 15/16 in.) sheet: 40.6 × 50.8 cm (16 × 20 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Hugh Leander Adams, Mary Trumbull Adams, and Hugh Trumbull Adams Princeton Art Fund
Object Number
2017-190
Place Made

North America, United States, Kansas, Fort Scott

Marks/Labels/Seals
Square stamp on verso: GORDON PARKS / This is a Certified Gordon Parks Photograph / which was printed in 2014 and / authenticated by the Gordon Parks Foundation. / [Signed] / Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr / Executive Director, the Gordon Parks Foundation / © The Gordon Parks Foundation, All rights reserved
Culture
American
Type
photographs, gelatin silver prints
Techniques
inkjet printing
Subject
profiles (figures), string (fiber product), insects, figures (representations), children (people by age group), boys

The artist; Gordon Parks Foundation, Pleasantville, New York, NY; purchased by the Princeton University Art Museum, 2017.

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The Museum regularly researches its objects and their collecting histories, updating its records to reflect new information. We also strive to catalogue works of art using language that is consistent with how people, subjects, artists, and cultures describe themselves. As this effort is ongoing, the Museum’s records may be incomplete or contain terms that are no longer acceptable. We welcome your feedback, questions, and additional information that you feel may be useful to us. Email us at collectionsinfo@princeton.edu.

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