‘Temples’ shows Gordon Parks’ religious photos

By Kelvin Childs

The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center presents “Temples of Hope, Rituals of Survival: Gordon Parks and Black Religious Life,” a curated selection of photos and other materials from the famed photographer, journalist, author, novelist, composer and film director. 

“Temples of Hope” draws from the Gordon Parks Legacy Collection, which the MSRC acquired in 2022. The 244 photographs in the Legacy Collection cover Parks’ photography career from the 1940s to the 1990s, in which he documented Black American life with a keen eye and unmatched insight. 

The curated “Temples of Hope” selection focuses on Parks’ observations of Black religious rituals, from the Black church to the Nation of Islam. It is on display in the Dorothy Porter Room of the Howard Museum in Founders Library until December 1.

The display is curated by Melanee C. Harvey, PhD, associate professor of art history in the Department of Art in the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University.

“Gordon Parks’ photography has long been a fixture in the documentation of Black life in America. With contemporary developments in Black religious studies and the history of photography, we saw it necessary to engage with Parks’ insightful perspective on how Black religious and spiritual traditions impact the environment and the communities from which they emerge,” Harvey said.

 

Event Details

“Temples of Hope, Rituals of Survival: Gordon Parks and Black Religious Life” 
Date: Tuesday, September 9–Monday, December 1
Location: Dorothy Porter Room, the Howard Museum, Founders Library
500 Howard Place NW, Washington, D.C. 20059

The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center is the largest repository of material about the Black diaspora in America. Your gift to MSRC keeps that history alive. Please donate here: Moorland-Spingarn Research Center