Gordon Parks, Sr.

Photographer, writer, and film director

• Born: November 30, 1912
• Birthplace: Fort Scott, Kansas
• Died: March 7, 2006
• Place of death: New York, New York

Parks, the first African American photographer employed by a major national publication, is known for his photos in Life magazine. He also wrote books and poetry, composed and played music, directed films, and advocated for civil rights.

Early Life

Gordon Roger Alexander Buchannan Parks was the youngest of fifteen children born to Andrew Jackson Parks and Sarah Ross Parks. Parks’s father made a meager living growing crops and raising livestock, and Parks’s mother did the housework and cared for the children. Parks attended a black grade school and a predominantly white high school in Fort Scott, Kansas. African Americans were not allowed to participate in school activities such as sports, and Parks experienced a great deal of prejudice at the school.

Parks’s mother died when he was fifteen, and he was sent to live with a sister in Minnesota. His sister’s husband did not accept Parks and kicked the teenager out of their house in mid-winter; as a result, Parks was forced to live on the streets. From 1927 to 1929, Parks had a number of jobs, such as washing dishes, playing piano in a brothel, and waiting tables at a club, while still going to high school. Parks then went to Chicago, where he worked various odd jobs, such as cleaning in a flophouse, being a busboy, and finally being a singer-piano player with a white orchestra, a position that was very unusual during the 1920’s. In 1933, he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and did tasks such as planting trees.

Parks later returned to Minneapolis, where he got a job as a waiter on a train running between Minneapolis and Chicago. His life changed when he found some photographs of poor migrant workers looking for employment in California amid the Depression. Parks decided that he wanted to take such pictures of the poor, and he soon bought his first camera. He began taking pictures of African Americans living in the Chicago slums. In contrast, he also took some successful fashion photographs during the train’s stopovers in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Kodak Company liked his photographs of the Chicago slums, and in 1942 he received a fellowship to work as a photojournalist for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in Washington, D.C.

Life’s Work

When the FSA was shut down in 1943, Parks went to work for the Office of War Information, where he was assigned to photograph the training of the 332d Fighter Group, the first black air squadron. During this time, he also took a number of pictures of the poor in Washington, D.C. Parks then joined a project sponsored by the Standard Oil Company, taking pictures of small towns and industries. He also was assigned to take portraits of the executives of Standard Oil. In 1944, Parks also began to take fashion photographs part time for Glamour and Vogue magazines. In the late 1940’s, he wrote technical manuals on flash photography and portrait photography.

Parks showed his portfolio to the photography editor of Life magazine, William Hicks, in 1948. Hicks hired him because of Parks’s experience with both documentary and fashion photography. Parks worked for Life from 1948 to 1972 on more than three hundred photo assignments. During his first eighteen months at the magazine, Parks was assigned photo essays on sports, politics, fashion, crime, and poverty. He was most passionate about his stories on poverty and crime. He was ecstatic when he was assigned for two years in Paris, France, in 1950, especially since his family could go with him. In France, he enjoyed the museums and the beauty of the countryside. There also appeared to be less racial bigotry in France than in the United States. He covered stories on the violent strikes in Paris and rulers who had fled their countries to reside in Spain and Portugal, and he produced photo essays about famous figures such as American general Dwight D. Eisenhower and British prime minister Winston Churchill. In his spare time, Parks wrote poetry, played the piano, composed music, and toured Europe. He returned to New York City in 1952 and was assigned a story on segregation in the South. At the time, African Americans and whites were required to use separate public bathrooms, drink from separate water fountains, and patronize separate restaurants. Parks followed around African American activists who were trying to test these restrictions with tactics such as drinking out of white water fountains.

Parks published The Learning Tree, an autobiography, in 1963, and in 1969 directed a film based on the book. In 1971, he directed his best-known film, Shaft, a film about a black detective. During his long career, Parks received a number of awards, including the Spingarn Medal of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Medal of Arts, as well as several honorary doctorates. Several schools have been named after him.

Significance

Parks was the first black photographer to be hired by major magazines such as Vogue, Glamour, and Life. He was also the first black photographer to work for the Office of War Information and the first African American to write and direct a major motion picture. He is best remembered by many as a photojournalist for Life magazine and director of Shaft. He also was the cofounder of Essence magazine. Parks was a gifted writer, musician, composer, civil rights advocate, and poet. He wrote eighteen books that ranged from technical books on photography to biographies and fiction. His musical compositions ranged from classical pieces to scores for his films. Despite never finishing high school, Parks became an impressive creative force in many media.

Bibliography

Gaines, Ann Graham. American Photographers: Capturing the Image. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow, 2002. This book, aimed at young readers, has short chapters on ten American photographers, including Parks. Includes index and some photos.

Parks, Gordon. Voices in the Mirror. New York: Doubleday, 1990. This autobiography offers many anecdotes about Parks’s life. Includes a few pictures of him at various ages, some of his photographs, and a detailed index.

Stange, Maren. Bare Witness: Photographs by Gordon Parks. Milan, Italy: Skira, 2007. Provides a summary of Parks’s career and a number of his photographs.

Willis, Deborah. Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers from 1840 to the Present. New York: W. W. Norton, 2002. Discusses many black photographers, including Parks, and the scope of their photographs. Includes several photos.