Camp Nathan Hale (mess call) Online Hot Sale

Camp Nathan Hale (mess call)
Shot by Gordon Parks in the summer of 1943 at an interracial summer camp in New York, Camp Nathan Hale (mess call) intentionally displays all the trappings of typical American patriotism complete with stars, stripes, and a bugle salute. While Parks often used his time with the Farm Security Administration (FSA) to document widespread segregation, his summer camp series endeavored to subvert the implicitly racist imagery often associated with outdoor recreation and the American wilderness. The concept of summer camp originally emerged as a retreat for young white males, but interracial camps like Camp Fern Rock and Camp Nathan Hale were rare microcosms intended to advance integration and equality in the outdoors. At these camps, Gordon created images of black and white children eating, washing, and playing together that directly mirrored the settings of some of the most antagonistic racial unrest of the time, including restaurants, restrooms, and recreational areas. The boy in this image beckons children of multiple ethnicities to come together for a meal. Parks’s summer camp photographs acknowledge the inherent presence of white supremacy in American landscapes by displaying a multicultural social space that did not exist in everyday life.