Two Boys on Railroad Track Outside Mobile, Alabama after 1956

Gordon Parks made this photograph of two boys on a railroad track in Mobile, Alabama, at an unknown date. I see the image as a study in rhythm, line, and perspective—the boy perched on the older boy’s shoulders creates a vertical form, punctuated by stripes, that is echoed by the telegraph poles in the background. Parks, with a kind eye, placed the pair in the center of the tracks, as if setting down a plumb line. I wonder if the boy on the top can see further down the line—I imagine Parks thinking about a different future for him. What does it feel like, I wonder, to bear the weight of a loved one on your shoulders? How does the sensation of the metal rail feel under bare feet? I like to think about how one artist speaks to another across time. Parks understood photography in much the same way that I understand painting—as an act of bearing witness and registering movement. This image, ultimately, speaks to hope and aspiration.