Otto von Habsburg's Wedding, France after 1951

Gordon Parks captured Otto von Habsburg's wedding in France, using photography to document a moment layered with history. The image, rendered in black and white, evokes the process of history, the way events are recorded, remembered, and fade into the past. Look at the composition, how the crowd blurs into a sea of faces, then focus on the foreground, the strong contrast of light and dark, particularly on the suited figures in the foreground. The way the light falls, creating sharp edges and soft gradients, feels almost sculptural. It reminds me of how texture can be built with layers of paint, each stroke adding depth and complexity. The blur creates a sense of motion, the constant movement of life continuing as new unions are forged. It is also as though Parks is nodding towards artists like Gerhard Richter, who also explored blurring to represent the unreliability of memory.