CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 5/16/2018

BACK IN STOCK! Gordon Parks: The Flavio Story

In June of 1961, Life magazine published Gordon Parks' photo-essay, Poverty: Freedom's Fearful Foe, documenting the lives of one family living in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The most widely-read photo-essay of all time, Parks' feature unintentionally elicited $25,000 in donations for the family, some of which went to bringing the oldest son, Flavio, to the United States for two years of intensive treatment for debilitating asthma. Reproduced here is Parks' cover for Life's follow-up story, published one month later. It is reproduced from Steidl's stupendous 300-page monograph, Gordon Parks: The Flavio Story. In March of 1961, Parks told a Brazilian journalist, "The world must see the tragedy of poverty as it is, and feel all its drama… everyone must face the problems of humanity. My way of facing these issues is through photography. It is important because it can show, without needing words, everything that is wrong and can be improved."