Kansas, Alabama, Illinois, New York—wherever Gordon Parks (1912–2006) traveled, he captured with striking composition the lives of Black Americans in the twentieth century. From his first portraits for the Farm Security Administration in the early forties to his essential documentation of the civil rights movement forLife magazine, he produced an astonishing range of work. In his photographs we see protests and inequality and pain but also love, joy, boredom, traffic in Harlem, skinny-dips at the watering hole, idle days passed on porches, summer afternoons spent baking in the Southern sun. With “Half and the Whole,” on view through February 20, Jack Shainman Gallery presents a trove of Parks’s photographs, many of which have rarely been exhibited. A selection of images from the show appears below.

Gordon Parks, Untitled, Shady Grove, Alabama, 1956, archival pigment print, 34 x 34″ (print). Edition L5 of 7, with 2APs Inventory. Copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation. Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Gordon Parks, Untitled, Chicago, Illinois, 1957, archival pigment print, 30 x 40″ (print). Edition 1 of 7, with 2APs Inventory. Copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation. Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. 

Gordon Parks, The Invisible Man, Harlem, New York, 1952, gelatin silver print, 42 x 42″. Edition 2 of 7, with 2 APs. Copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation. Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Gordon Parks, Untitled, Harlem, New York, 1963, archival pigment print, 30 x 40″ (print). Edition 6 of 7. Copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation. Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Gordon Parks, Watering Hole, Fort Scott, Kansas, 1963, archival pigment print, 24 x 20″ (print). Edition 1 of 7, with 2 APs. Copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation. Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Gordon Parks, Outside Looking In, Mobile, Alabama, 1956, archival pigment print, 46 1/8 x 46 1/4″ (framed). Edition L1 of 7, with 2 APs. Copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation. Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Gordon Parks, Untitled, Harlem, New York, 1963, archival pigment print, 30 x 40″, Edition 1 of 7, with 2 APs. Copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation. Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Gordon Parks, American Gothic, Washington, D.C., 1942, gelatin silver print, 14 x 11″ (print). GPF authentication stamped. Copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation. Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Gordon Parks, Untitled, Harlem, New York, 1963, archival pigment print, 30 x 40″ (print). Edition L1 of 7, with 2 APs. Copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation. Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Gordon Parks, Department Store, Mobile, Alabama, 1956, archival pigment print, 50 x 50″ (print). Edition 4 of 7, with 2APs. Copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation. Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

“Half and the Whole” will be on view at both Jack Shainman Gallery locations through February 20.