Invisible Man: Gordon Parks and Ralph Ellison in Harlem

Gordon Parks and Ralph Ellison are both recognized as major figures in American art and literature. What is less known is that their friendship, coupled with a shared vision of racial injustices and a belief in the communicative power of photography, inspired collaboration on two projects, one in 1948 ("Harlem Is Nowhere" for ’48: The Magazine of the Year) and another in 1952 (“A Man Becomes Invisible” for Life magazine). Neither essay was published as originally conceived—the first was lost, while only a fragment of the second appeared in print. This exhibition reunites for the first time the surviving photographs and texts intended for the two projects, including never-before-seen photographs by Parks from the collections of the Art Institute and the Gordon Parks Foundation and unpublished manuscripts by Ellison.