Storefront, Alabama after 1956

Gordon Parks made this photograph, Storefront, Alabama, using color film. I love the slightly faded quality of the color here, it's like a memory. The surface of the image is flat, but the composition makes you feel the heat and dustiness of the place. There's a beautiful stillness to the arrangement of figures, the way they occupy the space. If you look closely at the Coca-Cola sign at the very top of the shop, you can see how worn and weathered it is. This one detail speaks volumes about the passage of time and the realities of life in the rural South, themes that Parks explored throughout his career. His work shares some similarities with that of Walker Evans, another photographer who documented the American South. Ultimately, it reminds us that art is not just about aesthetics, but about bearing witness.