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Quick Facts
- NAME: Gordon Parks
- OCCUPATION: Photographer, Director, Songwriter, Pianist, Writer
- BIRTH DATE: November 30, 1912
- DEATH DATE: March 07, 2006
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Fort Scott, Kansas
- PLACE OF DEATH: New York, New York
- Full Name: Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks
- AKA: Gordon Parks
Best Known For
Gordon Parks was an African-American photographer, filmmaker and author, best known for his work published in LIFE magazine and for directing the hit movie Shaft.
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Play NowGordon Parks. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 08:09, May 20, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/gordon-parks-37379.
Gordon Parks. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/gordon-parks-37379 [Accessed 20 May 2013].
"Gordon Parks." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 20 2013, 08:09 http://www.biography.com/people/gordon-parks-37379.
"Gordon Parks," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/gordon-parks-37379 [accessed May 20, 2013].
"Gordon Parks," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/gordon-parks-37379 (accessed May 20, 2013).
Gordon Parks [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 20] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/gordon-parks-37379.
Gordon Parks, http://www.biography.com/people/gordon-parks-37379 (last visited May 20, 2013).
Gordon Parks. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/gordon-parks-37379. Accessed May 20, 2013.
Synopsis
Born on November 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, Kansas, Gordon Parks was a self-taught artist who became the first African-American photographer for Life and Vogue magazines. He also pursued movie directing and screenwriting, working at the helm of the films The Learning Tree, based on a novel he wrote, and Shaft. Parks has published several memoirs and retrospectives as well, including A Choice of Weapons.
Quotes
"People in millenniums ahead will know what we were like in the 1930's and the thing that, the important major things that shaped our history at that time. This is as important for historic reasons as any other."
"There's another horizon out there, one more horizon that you have to make for yourself and let other people discover it, and someone else will take it further on, you know."
"I suffered evils, but without allowing them to rob me of the freedom to expand."
Early Life
Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks was born on November 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, Kansas. His father, Jackson Parks, was a vegetable farmer, and the family lived modestly.
Parks faced aggressive discrimination as a child. He attended a segregated elementary school and was not allowed to participate in activities at his high school because of his race. The teachers actively discouraged African-American students from seeking higher education. After the death of his mother, Sarah, when he was 14, Parks left home. He lived with relatives for a short time before setting off on his own, taking whatever odd jobs he could find.
Famed Photographer
Parks purchased his first camera at the age of 25 after viewing photographs of migrant workers in a magazine. His early fashion photographs caught the attention of Marva Louis, wife of the boxing champion Joe Louis, who encouraged Parks to move to a larger city. Parks and his wife, Sally, relocated to Chicago in 1940.
Parks began to explore subjects beyond portraits and fashion photographs in Chicago. He became interested in the low-income black neighborhoods of Chicago's South Side. In 1941, Parks won a photography fellowship with the Farm Security Administration for his images of the inner city. Parks created some of his most enduring photographs during this fellowship, including "American Gothic, Washington, D.C.," picturing a member of the FSA cleaning crew in front of an American flag.
After the FSA disbanded, Parks continued to take photographs for the Office of War Information and the Standard Oil Photography Project. He also became a freelance photographer for Vogue. Parks worked for Vogue for a number of years, developing a distinctive style that emphasized the look of models and garments in motion, rather than in static poses.
Relocating to Harlem, Parks continued to document city images and characters while working in the fashion industry. His 1948 photographic essay on a Harlem gang leader won Parks a position as a staff photographer for LIFE magazine, the nation's highest-circulation photographic publication. Parks held this position for 20 years, producing photographs on subjects including fashion, sports and entertainment as well as poverty and racial segregation. He was also took portraits of African-American leaders, including Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael and Muhammad Ali.
Parks launched a writing career during this period, beginning with his 1962 autobiographical novel, The Learning Tree. He would publish a number of books throughout his lifetime, including a memoir, several works of fiction and volumes on photographic technique.
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