Gordon Parks, “Emerging Man, Harlem, 1952.” Gelatin silver print. © The Gordon Parks Foundation. Collection of the International Center of Photography.

As the first black staff photographer at Life magazine, Gordon Parks photographed both the gorgeous and the gritty, and the two opposing subject matters would define his career as a photographer. While Parks once said he used his camera as a weapon against the things he hated, like racism and poverty, he also admitted that it can be used to capture beauty, such as fashion and society portraits.

In honor of the centennial of the ground-breaking photographer’s birth, the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York City, in co-operation with The Gordon Parks Foundation, is hosting a unique outdoor exhibition that can be viewed along the museum’s exterior. “Gordon Parks: 100 Years” includes an oversize mural of “Emerging Man” (above) and over 50 photographs by Parks, which will be displayed via three video screens as part of a window installation at the ICP building at 1133 Avenue of the Americas through January 6, 2013. Visit icp.org for more information.

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All Photos © Casey Rodgers

Casey Rodgers is a portrait and fashion photographer who originally dreamed of becoming a Samurai. He now kicks and slices his way around the world for clients such as InStyle, Glamour, Microsoft, & Xbox. He placed in last year’s PDN Faces Portrait Photography contest with a series of celebrity portraits, including these portraits of Matt Damon and Keanu Reeves. Today is the deadline for the 2012 Faces contest.

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All photos © Meike Nixdorf.

Berlin-based photographer Meike Nixdorf ‘s series, “In the Orbit of El Teide” explores the idea of perception by questioning  how much information is revealed and  hidden from the photographic frame. Nixdorf navigated the Canary Islands in Spain to capture the changing perspective and atmosphere of the mountain El Teide. As the texture and color in the foreground changes, one thing that remains the same is El Teide’s peak in the background. Nixdorf says, “It is only through looking at these images one-by-one that one realizes how much more information, visual aspects, perspectives or stories-to-be-told there are to just one single mountain–or to any subject matter basically.” See a short video documentary on the making of “in the Orbit of El Tiede”.

Nixdorf’s series was discovered by photo editor Leonor Mamanna of  New York magazine on the blog This isn’t Happiness. See more of our industry leaders’ favorite sources for photography here in the “Like” List featured in PDN‘s current Photo Annual issue.

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Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Late 1980′s # 5-5

After moving to the south side of Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 1988, James Cathcart became interested in observing, documenting and working with the process of ‘car stripping’. In the height of the crack cocaine epidemic, Williamsburg was a convenient neighborhood for the dismantling of stolen cars and the resale of used car parts. His observation of car stripping and disposal in Williamsburg continued through the mid nineties — when the neighborhood began changing rapidly.

Boneyards opens June 1st at Causey Contemporary Gallery in Williamsburg. The show runs until July 15th.
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“Untitled,” 1960s. © The Estate of Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard is best known for the eerie, masked portraits in his photo book The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater, which was published after his death in 1972. Beginning on Saturday, May 19, 2012, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will exhibit “Ralph Eugene Meatyard: Dolls and Masks,” which explores Meatyard’s early work from the late-Fifties through the Sixties. In the images, his friends and family members wear masks while posing in rundown houses, forests and cemeteries. Dolls and doll parts also figure prominently in the work. The exhibition runs through August 5, 2012. For more info, visit www.philamuseum.org.

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