Photo: Gordon Parks, Drug Search, Chicago, Illinois, 1957.

RESPECT. Magazine Proudly Endorses The Gordon Parks Foundation’s Exhibition: “The Atmosphere of Crime”

What do we mean by “crime” in America? The question should be easy to answer—we have detailed codes and statutes that forbid certain conduct defined as a criminal offense. We have an elaborate system of policing, prosecution, punishment, and incarceration that involves millions of people. But there’s a great deal more to how we think and talk about crime, and certainly to how we see and enforce criminal laws.

From the beginning, the prosecution and punishment of crime in this country have been profoundly shaped by race, poverty, power, and status. For centuries politicians have stoked fear of crime and exploited perceived crime waves, while our public discourse about crime has been compromised by persistent inattention to our history of racial violence. There is a different narrative about “crime in America” that we have for the most part ignored.

In 1957, Life magazine editors engaged staff photographer Gordon Parks and writer Robert Wallace to explore crime in the United States. The published article, by Wallace and staff editors, was a myopic rendering of the dominant narrative about crime and criminality, emblematic of a discourse shaped by politicians, law enforcement officials, and criminologists not interested in reckoning with pervasive racially motivated criminality.

Photo: Gordon Park. Untitled, Chicago, Illinois, 1957

Gordon Parks’s photographs told a different story. As an African American survivor of racial injustice, he was keenly aware of race and class in America, and this palpably informed his photography and his art. He consistently humanized people who were meant to be objects of scorn and derision. It’s this dissonance with a conventional crime narrative that makes his “crime” photos for Life so compelling today.

Excerpt from Bryan Stevenson, “The Lens of Gordon Parks: A Different Picture of Crime in America,” in Gordon Parks: The Atmosphere of Crime, 1957 (co-published by The Gordon Parks Foundation, The Museum of Modern Art, and Steidl, 2020).

A version of this exhibition titled Gordon Parks and The Atmosphere of Crime was originally on view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, from Spring 2020–Spring 2022.

The Gordon Parks Foundation Gallery

Through November 4, 2022

The post How GORDON PARKS Documented the Prosecution & Punishment of Crime Shaped by Race, Poverty and Power appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

In a time when music and the arts in schools are a luxury, Crime was fortunate enough to be exposed to music in school during his most formative years. This introduction led to his development in the art of rapping. Armed with musical knowledge and a local following, Crime did what most kids who were musically inclined, in neighborhoods across America did, he formed a group, and while he composed and performed mainly for fun, his professional path was clear.

Crime just released his first single “Right Now” produced by OT Beats. The single is an energetic street, club anthem. “Brooklyn Style” kicking in the door of the music industry with real music the streets can relate to. Crime is letting everybody know, “We can go to war, or we can get It right now,” meaning roll with him or get rolled over. He is real, about his business and here to stay.

Check out Crime’s new single “Right Now” available on all streaming platforms below!

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It has been reported that Philly rapper Beanie Sigel has been shot. The rapper was in Pleasantville, New Jersey when he was in some altercation where it is said he was shot in the stomach. Beanie is in surgery at a nearby hospital. No word on his current condition. Our prayers are with him!

The post BREAKING NEWS: BEANIE SIGEL REPORTEDLY SHOT IN NEW JERSEY! appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Mayer Hawthorne’s new album, Where Does This Door Go, only hits stores on July 16, but NPR got the green light for an advanced stream. One of the standouts on the album is “Crime,” a collaboration with Kendrick Lamar. The record starts off with some of Hawthorne’s crooning, as Kendrick raps on the second half. Listen below and stream the full album over here.

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Mychal Denzel Smith, social commentator and writer for theloop21.com, discusses the current love affair between the big house and young hip-hop artists in his new article, “Hip-Hop is in Need of Therapy.” Because the truth is, although crime-ridden lyrics aren’t new to hip-hop, Ice-T was never releasing singles from a jail cell.

Smith’s solution: Record labels provide mental therapy for hip-hop artists. Hm…

I started to consider T.I.’s legal troubles in a different light. Jones noted that T.I., at 30-years-old, never really expected to live this long. Nearly all of his childhood friends are either dead or in jail.

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