Bessie and Little Richard the Morning After She Scalded Her Husband, Harlem after 1967

Gordon Parks made this photograph of Bessie and Little Richard in Harlem. The greyscale image feels like an etching, with light emerging from the shadows. The weight of the blanket seems to drag the figures down. I can imagine Parks’s careful choreography of light and dark. The morning is heavy after a night of intense emotion. I can imagine him moving around the room, adjusting his lens, trying to capture the quiet before them, not just the immediate aftermath. The intimacy of the figures is striking; the trust she puts in Parks is profound. I am reminded of other image-makers like Roy DeCarava, who similarly invite you into the interiority of their subjects' lives. Photographs like this make me think about the responsibility we have when we look at art. Parks isn’t just showing us a picture; he’s inviting us to witness something deeply human, something difficult. And that’s where the real conversation begins, across time and space.