Skip to Content

The Arts Intel Report

Gordon Parks: The Flávio Story

July 9 – Nov 10, 2019
17985 Pacific Coast Hwy, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272, USA

“Death was all over him,” Parks wrote of Flávio, a severely asthmatic Brazilian boy, only 12, whose suffering he photographed. Parks was in Brazil for a Life-commissioned photo series, and his focus on Flávio not only illuminated poverty’s perils but told a story of deep empathy between photographer and subject. That empathy continued for many years afterward—a relationship caught and held by the camera. —C.J.F.