Gordon parks was a renowned photographer, writer, composer and
film maker best known for his films shaft and learning tree.
Born on 30th November 1912 in Kansas City (birth
name) Gordon roger Alexander Buchanan parks was born on November 30th
1912 as his father (Jackson parks) who worked as a vegetable farmer and lived a
very modest life.
As a young black American Gordon faced great racial discrimination
as a child as he attended through the whole of secondary school and was not
allowed to take place in certain activities throughout his school life just
because of his skin colour. The teachers also took a great roll in
discrimination of Gordon as they would constantly discourage Gordon (and anyone
who was of African American decent) from seeking any form of higher education. Later
on in life Gordon’s mother sadly pasted away when he was at the age of 14, causing
Gordon to leave home and live with relatives before setting off and looking for
whatever odd and strange jobs he could find
At the age of 25 Gordon invested in in first camera after
getting inspiration form images of migrant workers in magazines. Gordon’s original
photos ended up catching the eye of Marva Louis who was wife of the very famous
boxing champion Joe Louis who encouraged Parks and his wife (sally) to move to Chicago
in 1940
Once parks moved to Chicago he began to gain great interest
in the low-income black neighbour hoods on the south side. Parks then won a
fellowship with the ‘Farm Security Administration’ for the images he produced
in the inner city. In his fellow ship parks created some of his best work including
one of his most famous pieces “American Gothic Washington D.C.” which showed a
picture of one of the FSA cleaning crew in front of an American flag.
Once the FSA had broken up Parks continued to follow and peruse
his passion for photography turning a freelance photographer for vogue. Parks
ended up working for Vogue for a number of years, creating a name in which he
developed a distinctive style in which emphasized the look of models and
garments in a motion shot rather than just a boring static pose.
Parks then ended up relocating to Harlem where he continued
to document city images and characters whilst also working in the fashion
industry. While working an photographic essay on a Harlem gang leader which won
him a position as staff photographer for Life Magazine. He ended up working for
Life Magazine for the next 20 years, producing photos on subjects such as fashion
and racial segregation and discrimination.
