Joseph Welch, Boston, Massachusetts
1954, printed later
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 43.5 × 56.2 cm (17 1/8 × 22 1/8 in.) sheet: 51.3 × 60.5 cm (20 3/16 × 23 13/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (The Gordon Parks Collection)
Accession Number
2016.117.182
Art Historical Context
In 1954, acclaimed photographer Gordon Parks captured this compelling portrait of Joseph Welch, Boston lawyer whose name became synonymous with moral courage during the infamous Army-McCarthy hearings. later as a gelatin silver print, the image measures 43.5 × 56.2 cm and exemplifies Parks' masterful ability to blend documentary realism with profound human insight. As one of the first prominent Black photojournalists for *Life* magazine, Parks documented pivotal moments of American social upheaval, often infusing his work with empathy for the marginalized. The photograph arrives at a tense hi...
About the Artist
Gordon Parks
Gordon Parks (1912–2006), born the youngest of fifteen children to a Kansas tenant farmer and his wife in segregated Fort Scott, overcame a childhood marked by poverty, racism, and tragedy—including his mother's death at age fourteen—to become one of America's most influential chroniclers of Black life. Entirely self-taught after purchasing his first camera in 1937, inspired by Farm Security Admin...