David O'Neill
THE VISIONARY PAINTER, SCULPTOR, AND INVENTOR JACK WHITTEN (1939–2018) moved to New York City from Alabama in 1960. He later explained that, as a Black civil rights activist in Jim Crow country, staying put was not an option: “I knew that if I stayed in the South, somebody was gonna kill me or I was […] 
ALEC SOTH, ONE OF THE MOST REVERED PHOTOGRAPHERS of the past twenty years, is also one of the most approachable. His homey, rambling, and relaxing YouTube videos are recorded in his personal library in Minnesota. The artist shows old pictures, flips through photo books, does AMAs (“ask me anything”), and tells stories about how his […] 
IN 1942, ELLA WATSON WAS A GOVERNMENT CLEANING WOMAN. Gordon Parks was a photographer for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). That summer, they met and collaborated on a photo essay that produced one of the twentieth century’s most striking images, Washington D.C. Government Charwoman (later renamed American Gothic). It was a breakthrough for Parks, who […]