Gordon Parks’ photographs from the middle of the 20th century insist quietly and powerfully that we look at the lives of people who were excluded from the cultural and political conversation for much of our history. Parks, the first African American photographer at Life Magazine, used his gifts to make images of everyday black life, to show Life’s readers what it meant to be black in America at that time. This week, we took a look at Gordon Parks’ work with VMFA curator Sarah Eckhardt.