Art Fact Friday #13 10-20-23 Gordon Parks
- William Mandela Matthews
- Oct 20, 2023
- 3 min read
American photographer,author, poet, composer and director of film. Recognized by iconic photos of poor Americans during the 1940s; later published in a photographic essays for Life magazine.The director of the films Shaft and The Learning Tree. Popularized in U.S. documentary photojournalism, which are kept by the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Born November 30, 1912 in Fort Scott, KS ,Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks, helped create the "blaxploitation" genre in Hollywood. One of the first black American filmmakers to direct films focused on the black experience in America.
At age 25, he purchased his first camera, at a pawnshop teaching himself to take photographs. He found a job in fashion photography later catching the attention of Marva Louis, wife of boxing champion Joe Louis. Parks and his wife, Sally Alvis, moved to Chicago where he began specializing in photographs of society women. Parks's photographs earned him a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship, 1942. This led to Parks joining the Farm Security Administration, documenting social conditions in America.
Parks created images of, American Gothic, Washington, D.C.,a widely known photograph. Parks experiences with racism in segregated D.C. ,motivated him to create the piece. He began using his camera "as a weapon"— gaining more popularity than any other black photographers. Later he worked in the Office of War Information,photographing the 332d Fighter Group aka the Tuskegee Airmen. Parks then began work with Standard Oil, between 1945-46 Parks created, Dinner Time at Mr. Hercules Brown's Home, by; Grease Plant Worker, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Car Loaded with Furniture on Highway; Self Portrait and Ferry Commuters, Staten Island, N.Y.
Parks moved to Harlem working in fashion photographer for Vogue. He would nurture a prominent style of photos with models moving opposed to being stationary. In the late-1940s, Parks began writing books on the art and craft of photography. In 1948 Parks earned a staff job with Life magazine lasting until 1972. He also published, Flash Photography and Camera Portraits: Techniques and Principles of Documentary Portraiture 1947-48. Between 1953-2005 He authored, The Learning Tree, A Choice of Weapons, Voices in the Mirror and A Hungry Heart He produce books influencing his role as a prominent black filmmaker.
Over 20 years, Parks produced photographs of popular culture as well portraits of Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Muhammad Ali, and Barbra Streisand. Parks composed Concerto for Piano and Orchestra1953. Photographs like 1956"The Restraints: Open and Hidden," magnified the impact of segregation, while honoring the lives and activities of families of Alabama.
In 1960 he was crowned Photographer of the Year by the American Society of Magazine Photographers. He also wrote A Choice of Weapons,1966. He later completed Tree Symphony in 1967. Parks went on to direct documentaries of black life funded through National Educational Television. In 1969 The Learning Tree, was released a semi-autobiographical film.
In 1970, Parks helped establish Essence magazine, serving as editorial director. 1971 he directed a detective film Shaft, starring Richard Roundtree. Shafts popularity spawned a genre of films known as blaxploitation. Parks directorial credits from 1972-76 include Shaft's Big Score, The Super Cops and Leadbelly.
During 1980s, Parks ventured into fiction releasing Shannon, a novel about Irish immigrants 1981. Parks's also exhibited "Gordon Parks: Expansions: The Aesthetic Blend of Painting and Photography." Relating abstract oil paintings to photography at Alex Rosenberg Gallery in Ny. 1988 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts while workin in television. He composed music and a libretto for Martin, a ballet tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., premiering in Washington, D.C., 1989. Later released on national television, 1990.
1995, The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. purchased Parks portfolio. In 2000 he was awarded the Congress of Racial Equality Lifetime Achievement Award. He worked until his death in 2006, winning numerous awards and over 50 honorary doctorates. He died of cancer March 7, 2006 age 93, in New York, NY.
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