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Camp Nathan Hale (mess call)
Camp Nathan Hale (mess call)
Camp Nathan Hale (mess call)

Camp Nathan Hale (mess call)

by Gordon Parks

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Artist Statement

Shot by Gordon Parks in the summer of 1943 at an interracial summer camp in New York, Camp Nathan Hale (mess call) intentionally displays all the trappings of typical American patriotism complete with stars, stripes, and a bugle salute. While Parks often used his time with the Farm Security Administration (FSA) to document widespread segregation, his summer camp series endeavored to subvert the implicitly racist imagery often associated with outdoor recreation and the American wilderness. The concept of summer camp originally emerged as a retreat for young white males, but interracial camps like Camp Fern Rock and Camp Nathan Hale were rare microcosms intended to advance integration and equality in the outdoors. At these camps, Gordon created images of black and white children eating, washing, and playing together that directly mirrored the settings of some of the most antagonistic racial unrest of the time, including restaurants, restrooms, and recreational areas. The boy in this image beckons children of multiple ethnicities to come together for a meal. Parks’s summer camp photographs acknowledge the inherent presence of white supremacy in American landscapes by displaying a multicultural social space that did not exist in everyday life.

Why We Love It

Parks photographed Camp Nathan Hale (mess hall) at one of the small handful of nonsegregated 40s-era summer camps. Caught mid-bugle call against the background of an American flag, this boy has the ever-important job of summoning campers for mealtime. In the company of Old Glory, this bugle ritual brings to mind American military might, and another American group associated with bugle salutes and the outdoors — the Boy Scouts. In both cases, the bugle would have been mainly used to demarcate the daily routines of camp or announce events. And in both cases, People of Color have been historically excluded, mistreated or undervalued. But here at Camp Nathan Hale, and in this image in particular, the symbolism of the bugle salute opposite stars and stripes prefaces children of differing ethnicities gathering to dine together. In doing so, it adds an imperative to the “traditional” elements of American patriotism at the time: interracial recreation ... Read more on the blog!

Details

+ Limited-edition, exclusive to 20x200
+ Museum quality: archival inks, 100% cotton rag paper unless noted
+ Handcrafted custom-framing is available

Our quoted dimensions are for the size of paper containing the images, not the printed image itself. We do not alter the aspect ratio, nor do we crop or resize the artists’ originals. All of our prints have a minimum border of .5 inches to allow for framing.

Medium:

Hahnemuhle Fine Art Baryta

Edition Structure:
8"x8" | edition of 10
11"x11" | edition of 200
16"x16" | edition of 25

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Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks was a photographer, musician, writer, and film director. His best-known work was in documentary photojournalism, consisting of images he made in the U.S. from the 1940s to the 1970s, focusing on issues of civil rights, poverty, and the lives of African-Americans. His work as a photographer and filmmaker was barrier-breaking: he was the first African-American photographer at LIFE and Vogue, and one of the first African-Americans to produce and direct major motion pictures such as Shaft.  Parks was born in 1912 into a poor and segregated life in Kansas. Drawn to photography after seeing images of migrant workers in a magazine, he picked up... Read More
a camera from a pawnshop and taught himself to use it. Despite a lack of formal training, he was hired by the Farm Security Administration. It was there Parks developed his style, creating powerful images that explored the socioeconomic impact of racism. After the FSA closed, Parks worked as a freelance photographer, shooting for both fashion magazines and photographing humanitarian issues. He was hired at LIFE Magazine, where he would remain for twenty years and for whom he would create a wide range of iconic images. Many of these photographs became symbols of activism, rallying support for the growing Civil Rights Movement, which Parks believed in deeply and documented often. Over the course of his career, Parks won numerous awards, gained over fifty honorary doctorates, directed several films, and wrote a best-selling novel. He continued photographing until his death in 2006.
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