• Untitled, Gordon Parks

The original photo that’s Gordon Parks took is the Mohammed Ali behind the ring in 1966 in London, England. This photo caught my attention because there has a very interesting negative space produced by the lights and shadows. The human shape could be anyone because the facial expressions or details can’t be distinguished. Also, the pose of the human seems that he is preparing for something or praying to God. So, I did some research and I realized that the photo is Mohammed Ali the most famous fighter in the history of boxing. Then, I took two empty cardboard boxes to try to recreate the scene, a dark hallway with the door and the room with light. After that, I used a small Pokémon figure called Pancham that’s coincidentally a fighting type of Pokémon as Muhammed Ali. As a lighting source, I used my iPad because is light, thin, and fits very well into the small box that represents the room that the fighter was in the photo. And to keep out other extra lights that can interfere with the photo I cover the scenery under my sheets, and I waited until night. Then I start to shoot a bunch of photos trying to capture the essence that Gordon Parks made with the original photo.

This photo is a self-portrait of Gordon Parks. In the photo Parks was holding his camera on the left side, covering their face. So, I tried to imitate his facial expressions and hold an imaginary camera, because I don’t have one, and simulate that I was taking a self-portrait with the imaginary camera. So, I used the front camera of my iPhone in order to recreate the Parks photo.

The last photograph that I choose was one that Parks took in Harlem, New York, in 1948. In there we can see a type of grid that makes a negative space, 3 vertical lines that divide the photography, 2 people on each side, and one in the middle. Between the lines have a positive space composed of two windows and two people separated by the middle vertical line. So, I trying to recreate this photo into the subway station. I went to the 59th Street Station in Brooklyn because it is the closest station to my house that has this type of structure similar to the photograph, vertical columns are clearly seen from the opposite platform. Also, it’s an underground station, so the lights are good enough in order to take the photo. I waited for the moment that two random people are on the different side of the column, and then I took the photograph.