Sandra K. Friday
Parks became very interested in Ella Watson's life story after making that initial photograph and visited her family at home where he developed a photo essay about her and her family. Two of these photos, "Ella Watson and Her Grandchildren
," 1942,
(
HPA,
p. 34) and "Children with Doll
," 1942
, (
HPA
, p. 35) are among those on which the students will practice their skills that are part of
looking through the lens
.
"Ella and Her Grandchildren," 1942
"Ella and Her Grandchildren,"
1942
, is an effective complement to "American Gothic
,"
1942
, because it features Ms Watson at home in her private life and actually contributes considerably to our understanding of her pictured as the cleaning lady in a Federal building in our nation's capitol in "American Gothic," 1942.
Parks seems to have positioned his lens in such a way that it almost appears to be two photographs separated by a door frame that runs vertically through the center. As in "American Gothic," there are many vertical lines in the composition: to the far left of the door frame, a gauze curtain running the length of the left side of the photo, a door, a refrigerator, and an open door leading out into the backyard where trees and sky are visible ~ all verticals. This row house or apartment is old and has had hard use from the appearance of the worn wallpaper, cracked plaster, and the rather banged-up doorframe.
The left side of the photo is very domestic, featuring Ella seated in her crowded kitchen on a hot summer evening with her three young grandchildren. They appear to have just finished a meal and she is holding the youngest grandchild on her lap. Just as I noticed the buttons missing on her dress in "American Gothic," I am drawn to the gauntness of her naked arm and her lean body clad in a housedress and apron. The door frame is another expression of her lean, impoverished figure. Items stacked on the refrigerator and on the counter and the absence of kitchen cupboards indicate that this is no up-to-the-minute kitchen. The spareness of the scene is almost reminiscent of the photos of sharecroppers taken by Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange in the South of the 30's. One can scarcely imagine Ella Watson trying to provide for the three grandchildren on her cleaning lady's salary. No wonder she is gaunt, but there are traces of a smile on her face as she gazes down on the grandchild in her lap, and the empty plates on the table in front of her grandchildren are a sign that, at least, there was a meal.
To the right of the center door frame, a large bureau or chest of drawers with a framed mirror mounted on the back takes up nearly the entire right side of the photograph. To add to the geometric shapes, a rectangular picture frame stands on the bureau. Reflected in the old and imperfect bureau mirror, we see Watson's adopted daughter (Parks tells us in the text accompanying the photo that her biological daughter died shortly after giving birth to her second child.), seated in what appears to be the bedroom, smiling and looking somewhat nostalgically at the photo of Watson's parents in the frame on the bureau, making this a multi-generational and very atypical portrait of Ella's parents, her daughter, and Ella and her grandchildren, each framed in separate spaces within the frame of one photograph. Parks has used his lens to tell a multi-layered story in the juxtaposition of the generations of African Americans: the stark domestic reality of Ella and her grandchildren in the left half of the photo, and the other-world quality of Ella Watson's daughter as she reminisces about the photo of her by-gone grandparents in the right half of the photo.
Once students have completed the questions on the graphic organizer and written their
caption
and
dialogue
, it should be challenging to write the family's
socio-economic
,
cultural
, and
historical
story. If they do some research on the Internet for the year 1942, they will discover that rationing of many food items had been imposed by the Federal government as the result of shortages due to the war. Shortages of many food items would only have made it more difficult for Ella Watson to provide for her family. We are left to imagine how she managed the logistics of cleaning government buildings and caring for three young children at the same time.
"Children with a Doll," 1942
Two of Watson's grandchildren, a five year-old girl and a three or four year-old boy, scantily clad, sit on the floor, up against a wall that bears signs of years of hard use and neglect. They are leaning into a white doll, classic in this time period, with fine (china-doll) facial features, a thick mane of flowing hair, and what once must have been an elegant dress. This photo brings to mind that sarcastic rhetorical question, "What is wrong with this picture?" implying something is terribly wrong with a situation, or an expected outcome. In this case two marginalized African American children wearing the barest of clothing, sit on the floor, "up against the wall," of a decrepit room, snuggling up to a white doll. A photo of children with a doll should radiate with innocence and whimsy, but on the contrary, this is fraught with a kind of pathos.
Parks created symmetry in the composition of this photo by nearly filling up the frame with the trio of children and doll slightly left of center, and added balance to the right of center by including a large square heat grate mounted in the wall just over the little boy's shoulder. The plaster around the grate is dingy and chipped as is the molding or mopboard running along the bottom of the wall. With Parks' attention to detail, the condition of the wall, plaster, and mopboard are all part of the children's story. There is something other-worldly about this slightly dog-eared white doll that, even as they clasp it, represents a society and lifestyle out of reach of these disenfranchised children.
Just as there was irony in "American Gothic" as a spare, elderly African American cleaning woman stands with mop and broom before a huge American flag, symbol of equality and democracy, irony is present in this photo of two children living on the periphery of the social and economic mainstream keeping company with what must have been a classy white doll when new, a symbol of the world to which these children have no access. This shop-worn doll with one shoe missing may be as close as they come. What's more, in 1942 black dolls were probably a rare commodity. I want my students to ponder and explore why Parks took this shot.
An excerpt from Toni Morrison's
The Bluest Eyes
would be provocative as students work with "Children with a Doll
.
"
Pecola, the eleven year-old black protagonist, believes with all her heart that if she had blue eyes she would be beautiful and beloved. It is the one wish she has above all others. Morrison asks the reader to excavate the conundrum of how white society can practice racism so caustic that it causes a little black girl to believe her only avenue to beauty and love is blue eyes. While it is inescapable to feel pity for Pecola, society that wreaks this devastation is the compelling subject.
Black Fighter Pilots Fight to Fly in WW II
By 1943 Parks had been reassigned from taking photos for the Farm Security Administration, documenting migrant workers, to a war correspondent for the Office of War Information, covering the training of the black 332nd Fighter Group that included the Tuskegee Airmen. The photo of five black pilots in full battle gear absorbed in a game of cards in what is known as the Ready Room belies the struggle against racism that they experienced to become fighter pilots and the discriminating practices they endured even after they had successfully completed their training.
It is common knowledge that in WW I blacks were relegated to roles as cooks, cleaners, and laborers. By WW II, Congress was bucking the War Department over a long-standing military policy of racism. Out of this stand-off, the "Tuskegee Experiment" was born, giving blacks a "separate but equal" opportunity to prove themselves, meeting the highest standards, to become fighter pilots.
In "Pilots Gambling in the Ready Room"
(
HPA
, p. 67),
Parks has captured the success of this "Experiment," as five black fighter pilots in full flight regalia gather around a table playing a hand of cards while waiting for orders. Their posture and game are casual but their gear - - inflatable life-vests, parachute packs, helmets and goggles - - testifies to the highly skilled and courageous work they do.
In the foreground, adding interest, contrast, and perspective, is the photographer's black cap that is part of his war correspondent's uniform (
HPA
, p. 68).Also in the foreground on the table are two ashtrays full of cigarette butts, a sign of a popular habit in the '40's that no doubt relieved the stress of being a fighter pilot. The pilot who is shuffling the cards is smoking.
The backdrop for this photo is the horizontals and verticals of two large windows, one through which the out-of-doors is visible, flanking a large blackboard across the back wall that reads "Flight Operations" at the top. This blackboard, which serves as a backdrop for the pilots, lends a lot of interest, not only because of the vertical and horizontal geometry behind the group of men, but because on the blackboard some of the columns and subheadings can be seen, reading: Pilot / Land / Mission / and Remarks. We actually can read the pilots' names chalked in on the board.
There is an urgency in the details of this photo: a parachute pack lying on the table, inflatable life-vests that the pilots are wearing around their necks, helmets and goggles ready to secure in place. Even though they seem relaxed playing cards, they are ready to run out the door to their fighter planes.
Parks' unprecedented and historical photo is a tribute to these men who had to fight their way out of military kitchens and laundry rooms to fight in flight against Adolph Hitler's Luftwaffe. Background information about the irony of this double struggle for democracy, both at home and abroad, will enrich the students' interaction with this photo, especially when they come to writing the
caption
,
dialogue
and
story
part of their activities.
Students might explore on the Internet this double struggle for democracy to which I referred in my discussion of
American Gothic
as the "Double V" campaign for democracy at home and abroad, and they might also explore the 332nd Fighter Group on the Internet where there are photos of the airmen, their planes, and many accounts of their ascent out of military laundry rooms into the sky.