Gordon Parks

(Fort Scott, Kansas, 1912 - 2006, New York, New York)

North America, American

Gordon Parks is best known for his documentary photography, which focuses on humanitarian aspects of mid- to late-20th-century America, particularly those related to race relations, poverty, Civil Rights and urban life. His career also included success as a composer, musician, author and filmmaker. Parks became interested in photography after seeing Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographs published in a magazine. Though he had no formal training and taught himself how to use a camera, he began his career as a fashion photographer in 1937. Parks was hired to photograph for the FSA in 1942, and later for the Office of War Information and the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. Beginning in 1944, Parks worked as a fashion photographer for Vogue, and four years later he became the first African American staff photographer for LIFE Magazine. At LIFE, he pursued some of his most important projects, including photo essays on Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, The Black Panthers, Southern segregation, gangs in Harlem and his personal experiences with racism. His most famous images, such as American Gothic (1942), rallied support for the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement, for which Parks himself was a tireless advocate as well as a documentarian.

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