The collection, called The Restraints: Open and Hidden, follows the lives of three families

Gordon Parks captured the lives of three families living in Mobile, Alabama in 1956


A stunning set of photographs taken by famed African-American photographer Gordon Parks during segregation in the 1950s are set to go on display later this month.

The collection, called The Restraints: Open and Hidden, follows the lives of three families living in and around downtown Mobile, Alabama in 1956, and show how they went about their daily routine in a town separated by race with children at their side.

Rediscovered in 2012, six years after he died of cancer at the age of 93, these photos will be shown at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia beginning this Saturday.

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The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia will be showing a collection of photographs by famed American cameraman Gordon Parks

The photos were originally shot on assignment for the September 1956 Life magazine photo-essay The Restraints: Open and Hidden

This image shows three children staring at Parks' the camera in Shady Grove, Alabama in 1956. Parks followed three families – the Thorntons, the Causeys and the Tanners – in their work, home and church lives near Mobile, Alabama

The image taken outside a department store in downtown Mobile, Alabama shows the colored entrance during segregation. While only 20 photos ran in the original Life photo-essay, the exhibit will feature 40 of Parks' shots from the series

The images were taken while on assignment for the September 1956 Life magazine photo-essay The Restraints: Open and Hidden.

Parks followed three families – the Thorntons, the Causeys and the Tanners – in their work, home and church lives near Mobile according to The Guardian.

Only 20 of the photographs ran in the original photo-essay, but 50 additional color transparencies were found in 2012. Of these 40 will be on display.

He would later go on to shoot famous subjects including Malcolm X, Barbara Streissand and Muhammad Ali for Life, working with the magazine for 20 years.

He also became one of the first African-Americans to ever shoot for Vogue.

Later in life he would go on to direct films, famously helming the classic Shaft two years after making his directorial debut with The Learning Tree in 1969,based upon his semi-autobiographical novel of growing up in Kansas in the 1920s.

He would continue to write until his death, and also co-founded the popular magazine Essence.

The photos had been forgotten until The Gordon Parks Foundation discovered 70 color transparencies six years after his death in 2012

Parks would later go on to shoot famous subjects including Malcolm X, Barbara Streissand and Muhammad Ali for Life

In addition to working at Life for 20 years, Parks was also one of the first African-Americans to shoot for Vogue

The series represents one of Parks' earliest social documentary studies on color film

Later in his life, Parks would go on to direct films, most notably the famed 1971 movie Shaft

An African-American orders ice cream from the colored entrance of a store. Parks also directed a film version of his auto-biographical novel The Learning Tree in 1969, about a boy growing up in Kansas in the 1920s

Mr and Mrs Albert Thornton sit in the front room of their home in the town. Writing became very important to Parks later in his life, and he would go on to co-found the magazine Essence