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Battered Man

Black-and-white photograph of a seated black man who is receiving medical care from two other individuals. The man has an anguished expression, with his mouth open in pain, and he wears a button-up shirt that is spattered with blood. The brown-skinned person on the man's right, whose back is to the camera, tends to the man's right eye. On the left a white-skinned person reaches into the frame, and holds the man's head steady.

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  • Black-and-white photograph of a seated black man who is receiving medical care from two other individuals. The man has an anguished expression, with his mouth open in pain, and he wears a button-up shirt that is spattered with blood. The brown-skinned person on the man's right, whose back is to the camera, tends to the man's right eye. On the left a white-skinned person reaches into the frame, and holds the man's head steady.

Date:

1948

Artist:

Gordon Parks
American, 1912–2006

About this artwork

In a career that lasted more than half a century, Gordon Parks produced moving documentary photo-essays as well as groundbreaking popular films. After working for the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information, Parks joined Life magazine in 1948, becoming the first African American photographer on staff. He shot fashion assignments and then moved into reportage, with a story on the gang wars that were consuming Harlem in the late 1940s. In order to gain the trust of gang members, Parks spent a week driving Midtowners gang-leader Red Jackson and his companions around in his Buick Roadmaster, learning about turf lines and observing the daily reality of brutality and death. The emotionally charged images made for the story—including this work, although it was not included in the final publication—solidified Parks’s reputation as an ambitious and uncompromising photojournalist.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Gordon Parks (Photographer)

Title

Battered Man

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1948

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

23.5 × 18.6 cm (9 1/4 × 7 5/16 in.) (image/paper/mount)

Credit Line

Laura T. Magnuson Acquisition Fund

Reference Number

2005.45

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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