Photographic works by Gordon Parks take viewers back in time more than 80 years to 1940s Daytona Beach in a new exhibition on display in Winter Park.

“Gordon Parks: Power of Photography” at the Albin Polasek Museum highlights the work of the African-American photographer, who worked for the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information and was sent to document Florida’s Atlantic Coast. His assignment focused on civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune, the university she founded and the surrounding Daytona Beach community.

“They were documenting the nation’s social conditions. Photographers, including Dorothea Lange, were part of a team that was going around and photographing the country, showing what was really going on at the time,” said Tamie Diener-Lafferty, the museum’s curator. “He had this great talent and ability to capture the essence of people and to capture emotion in his photographs with his distinct style.”

The 1943 black-and-white photographs (on loan from the Southeast Museum of Photography) show students in school, some in special programs to learn about agriculture or welding, high school football players and scenes from Daytona Beach during a time of segregation. Even while working on assignment as a government employee for several weeks, Parks, a Black photographer, faced negative encounters in the community.

“He had two racist encounters when he was there. He was at a gas station where a white man was very threatening to him, and he was also harassed by police,” Diener-Lafferty said.

Despite the hurdles he faced and a lack of professional training, Parks once stated, “I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera.”

A big part of Parks’s job was to highlight Bethune, a powerful unifier in the community later appointed as a national advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the school she helped establish in the Daytona Beach community.

Because the works shown are all from the days of analog photography, a darkroom exhibit showcases the process of making film photographs in pre-digital times. The equipment is on loan from Peter Schreyer, the executive director of Crealdé School of Art, who will lead a one-day photography workshop on June 30 (pre-registration required).

Ultimately, this body of work transports viewers back in time with an empathic look at the social conditions of African Americans in 1940s Daytona Beach, a time of segregation but also education and communal joy thanks to the tireless efforts of Bethune.

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If you go

“Gordon Parks: Power of Photography” is on view through Aug. 18 at 633 Osceola Ave. in Winter Park. The museum is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 1 p.m.-4 p.m. Sunday (closed Mondays). Admission is $12 per adult, $10 per college student with ID and seniors ages 60 and older, and $7 for K-12 students. The exhibition has special events, including a member reception from 6-8 p.m. June 12, the photography workshop from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. June 30 and a gallery talk by Peter Schreyer at 6 p.m. July 11. For more information, visit polasek.org.