Mario, Crying After Being Bitten by a Dog after 1961

Gordon Parks captured this photograph of a child in obvious distress. I imagine Parks observing this boy, Mario, finding a kind of horrible beauty in this moment of pain. The light is stark, hitting Mario's face and bare legs as he clutches at the injury. The image quality itself—the grain, the contrast— feels raw and urgent. Think about what Parks, with his camera, is trying to say. Is it about the boy's personal suffering? Is it about the struggles of poverty and place? Is it, like a painter who lays down brushstrokes, about bearing witness? Parks was a great humanitarian and a deeply empathetic photographer, and his images show us the world through the eyes of the less fortunate. In the end, this image is about childhood, maybe, and how pain and fear are universal. This boy’s open-mouthed wail could have been any of us.