Isabel Beside Sick Father, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

© The Gordon Parks Foundation

Currently not on view

Isabel Beside Sick Father, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,

1961

Gordon Parks, 1912–2006; born Fort Scott, KS; died New York, NY; active New York, NY
2017-180
View full record

More Context

<em>Life</em> magazine’s first African American staff photographer, Parks produced a series of groundbreaking photo-essays, including “Freedom’s Fearful Foe: Poverty” that appeared in the June 16, 1961, issue. The essay centered on Catacumba, one of Rio de Janeiro’s hillside slums, or favelas, and Parks, who described poverty as “the most savage of all human afflictions,” focused in particular on one individual, the twelve-year-old Flavio da Silva. The eldest of eight children, Flavio took care of his family while suffering from malnutrition and untreated asthma. Here Flavio’s three-year-old sister, Isabel, cries next to her father, José, lying in bed with back pain.

More About This Object

Exhibition | States of Health: Visualizing Illness and Healing

Information

Title
Isabel Beside Sick Father, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Dates

1961

Maker
Gordon Parks
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 33 × 49.7 cm (13 × 19 9/16 in.) sheet: 40.6 × 50.8 cm (16 × 20 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Hugh Leander Adams, Mary Trumbull Adams, and Hugh Trumbull Adams Princeton Art Fund
Object Number
2017-180
Place Made

South America, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro

Signatures
Signed in marker on verso: Gordon Parks
Inscription
in marker on verso: FLAV 10
Marks/Labels/Seals
[no stamp]
Culture
American
Type
gelatin silver prints, photographs
Techniques
gelatin silver process
Subject
favelas, figures (representations), beds (furniture), daughters, fathers, girls, men

The artist; Gordon Parks Foundation, Pleasantville, New York, NY; purchased by the Princeton University Art Museum, 2017.

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The Museum regularly researches its objects and their collecting histories, updating its records to reflect new information. We also strive to catalogue works of art using language that is consistent with how people, subjects, artists, and cultures describe themselves. As this effort is ongoing, the Museum’s records may be incomplete or contain terms that are no longer acceptable. We welcome your feedback, questions, and additional information that you feel may be useful to us. Email us at collectionsinfo@princeton.edu.

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