Alison Jacques
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • ARTISTS
  • GALLERY PROGRAMME
  • EXHIBITIONS ONLINE
  • NEWS
  • ART FAIRS
  • PUBLICATIONS
  • PHILANTHROPY
  • CONTACT
Menu

Artworks

Gordon Parks, The Fontenelles at the Poverty Board, Harlem, New York, 1967
Gordon Parks, The Fontenelles at the Poverty Board, Harlem, New York, 1967

Gordon Parks

The Fontenelles at the Poverty Board, Harlem, New York, 1967
Silver gelatin print
27.9 x 35.6 cm, 11 x 14 in, unframed
46 x 55 cm, 18 1/8 x 21 5/8 in, framed
© The Gordon Parks Foundation
Enquire
%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22artist%22%3EGordon%20Parks%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22title_and_year%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_title%22%3EThe%20Fontenelles%20at%20the%20Poverty%20Board%2C%20Harlem%2C%20New%20York%3C/span%3E%2C%20%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_year%22%3E1967%3C/span%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22medium%22%3ESilver%20gelatin%20print%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22dimensions%22%3E27.9%20x%2035.6%20cm%2C%2011%20x%2014%20in%2C%20unframed%3Cbr/%3E%0A46%20x%2055%20cm%2C%2018%201/8%20x%2021%205/8%20in%2C%20framed%3Cbr/%3E%0A%3C/div%3E

Further images

  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) Thumbnail of additional image
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) Thumbnail of additional image
Parks spent a month with Norman and Bessie Fontenelle and their nine children in their cramped apartment. The resulting series of photographs provide a searing portrait of poverty in the...
Read more
Parks spent a month with Norman and Bessie Fontenelle and their nine children in their cramped apartment. The resulting series of photographs provide a searing portrait of poverty in the United States, offering a view of Harlem through the narrative of a specific family at a particular moment in time. The Fontenelle photos are perhaps Parks' most documentary in style, showing the harsh realities faced by the family, in the case of this particular image, at the Poverty Board.
Close full details

Provenance

The Artist
The Gordon Parks Foundation, New York, US

Exhibitions

Gordon Parks: Selections from The Dean Collection, The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art at the Hutchins Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 26 April – 19 July 2019

Family Pictures, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio 16 February – 20 May 2018

Gordon Parks: I Am You; Selected Works 1942–1978, C/O Berlin 9 September 2016 – 4 December 2016; Versicherungskammer Kulturstiftung, Munich, Germany 8 February – 7 May 2017; Foam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 16 June – 6 September 2017; Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Frankfurt, Germany 17 September 2017 – 7 January 2018; Vericherungskammer Kulturstiftung Foundation, Munich, Germany 7 February – 7 May 2017

Outsiders: American Photography and Film, 1950s-1980s, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada 3 March – 29 May 2016

A Harlem Family, The Gordon Parks Foundation, Pleasantville, New York 12 September 2015 – 9 January 9 2016

Gordon Parks: A Harlem Family 1967, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York 11 November 2012 – 30 June 2013

Gordon Parks: An American Story, Gordon Parks Arts Hall, University of Chicago Laboratory School, Chicago, Illinois 8 September – 25 November 2015

Gordon Parks: A Harlem Family 1967, Studio Museum Harlem, New York 11 November 2012 – 30 June 2013

Gordon Parks: Portraits, Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, Black Artists' NetworkIn Dialogue (BAND) Gallery, Toronto, Ontario 25 April – 3 August 2014

Une histoire américaine. Magasin Électrique, Arles, France 1 July – 22 September 2013

Una storia americana. FORMA, Milan, Italy 25 April 25 – 23 June 2013


Publications

Gordon Parks: Born Black: A Personal Report on the Decade of Black Revolt 1960-1970, Steidl / The Gordon Parks Foundation, 2024, p.120, 203, 271.
Invisible Man: Gordon Parks and Ralph Ellison in Harlem, edited by Michal Raz-Russo, Göttingen: Steidl, The Gordon Parks Foundation, and The Art Institute of Chicago, 2016, p.105, 146.
Gordon Parks: A Harlem Family 1967, edited by Gordon Parks, Thelma Golden, Elizabeth Gwinn, and Lauren Haynes, Göttingen: Steidl, The Gordon Parks Foundation, and The Studio Museum in Harlem, 2012, p.17, 78, 98.
Gordon Parks: Collected Works IV, edited by Peter W. Kunhardt Jr., Path Roth. Steidl / The Gordon Parks Foundation, 2012, p.147.
Share
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Previous
|
Next
529 
of  895
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2026 Alison Jacques
Site by Artlogic
Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Twitter, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences