Parks’ chronicle of small-town Maine anticipates his profound images of civil rights and inequality

In January 1944, Gordon Parks (1912–2006) photographed Herklas Brown―the owner of a general store and Esso gas station in Somerville, Maine. Parks traveled to the state under the auspices of the Standard Oil Company New Jersey (SONJ) to record their contributions to the war effort and document the home front in this crucial period. His photographs chronicled oil and gas facilities and workers, small-town Esso gas station owners, as well as people whose lives depended on fuel and other SONJ products.
Consistent with his work before and after, Parks prioritized getting to know his subjects as people, photographing Brown not only at his Esso station but also at home with his family. Despite the challenges he faced as a Black man traveling alone, Parks created a compelling documentary record of rural America. The images from this period offer crucial insight into the historic moment, as well as Parks’ early photographic practice directly before he began his tenure at Life magazine. Published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Herklas Brown and Maine, 1944 features more than 90 previously unpublished photographs.