Flavio da Silva After Asthma Attack, the Favela 1961

Gordon Parks made this photograph, Flavio da Silva After Asthma Attack, the Favela, at an unknown date, and you can really see the hand of the artist in the rich monochrome tonality. The image has a beautiful range of blacks and greys, the blanket pulled around the boy's waist is this wonderful field of mid tones, but look more closely and you begin to see these areas of damage and repair. What do we learn from how Parks treats the textures of fabric and skin? His decision to use black and white film adds an austere quality to the image. It's as if colour would somehow have been too much. Parks was a photojournalist, documenting the key social issues of his day, and in the work of artists like Dorothea Lange you see a similar approach to portraying people with dignity and sensitivity in difficult circumstances. Art, at its best, invites us to consider different experiences and perspectives, opening up conversations about how we see ourselves and others.