French Soldiers under Attack after 1951

Gordon Parks made this photograph, "French Soldiers under Attack," with a camera, and a dark room— all the analogue stuff. Look at the composition – that road pulls your eye right into the drama. You can almost smell the smoke and feel the heat of the explosions. I wonder what Parks was thinking as he captured this intense moment. I bet he was scared. I bet he knew he had a duty to make an image to show people what it was like. Maybe he thought of Goya. The grainy texture adds to the sense of urgency, doesn't it? Parks isn’t just showing us a scene. He's inviting us to witness something raw and real, tapping into our gut feelings. He lets the viewer into that moment of chaos. And that feels generous, like he is one of us. Artists like Parks teach us that making art, even photography, is a way of processing and understanding the world. It’s a kind of conversation across time, where each artist picks up the thread from the last, adding their own perspective to the story.