Via Zucchelli, Rome, Italy 1949

Gordon Parks made this photograph of Via Zucchelli in Rome, Italy, using black and white film and a camera. Look at the tonal range here - how Parks coaxes a whole world of greys and blacks out of the light. The image feels so textured, doesn't it? Parks finds a way to render what I imagine to be a rough, pockmarked wall in almost palpable detail. The textures of the plaster feel like they're in conversation with the figure of the woman at the bottom of the frame. Her clothing rendered in soft tones, her hands crossed, creating such a contrast between human flesh and the stone behind. I can't help but think of Walker Evans and his stark documentation of the American South. Both artists using the camera to find a certain beauty in the everyday. Like a painter, Parks coaxes meaning from the world around him, not prescribing meaning but allowing it to emerge.