In January 1944, at the height of World War II, Gordon Parks photographed Herklas Brown, owner of the general store and Esso gas station in Somerville, Maine. Parks traveled to the state under the auspices of the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) (SONJ) to record its contributions to the war effort and to document the home front in this crucial period. His photographs chronicled oil and gas facilities and workers, Esso gas station owners in small towns, and people whose work depended on fuel and other SONJ products. Consistent with his work before and after, Parks made it his mission to get to know his subjects and show their humanity; he photographed Brown at his Esso station, in his store, and with his family at the dinner table. Traveling at a time when transportation, food, and lodging were a challenge, and notably as a Black man traveling alone, Parks nonetheless created a compelling documentary record of rural America that offers insight into this historic moment, as well as into his early photographic practice that directly preceded his joining the staff of Life magazine.
Gordon Parks: Herklas Brown and Maine, 1944 is published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Featuring more than ninety previously unpublished photographs, the book includes contributions by Frank H. Goodyear III, co-director, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, and artist Carrie Mae Weems.
