Gordon Parks

Who He Is

Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks was born on November 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, Kansas, as the youngest of fifteen children in a farming family. His mother, who was the greatest influence in his early life, died when he was fourteen, leading him to live with a sister in St. Paul, Minnesota. When that arrangement fell apart, Parks became homeless as a teenager, surviving through odd jobs such as a waiter, piano player, and railroad porter. He had no formal training in photography. In 1937, while working on a railroad dining car, he picked up a magazine and saw a photo essay on migrant workers that captivated him. He bought a used camera at a pawnshop for $7.50, taught himself how to use it, and never looked back. Within a few years, his photographs of life on Chicago's South Side gained national attention.

Why He Matters

Parks used his camera as what he called "a weapon against poverty and racism." In 1942, he won a fellowship to work with the Farm Security Administration in Washington, D.C., where he created one of his most famous images: "American Gothic, Washington, D.C.," a portrait of a Black cleaning woman named Ella Watson standing in front of an American flag with a broom in one hand and a mop in the other. In 1948, he became the first African American staff photographer at Life magazine, where he spent more than two decades producing powerful photo essays on poverty, civil rights, fashion, and culture. Parks was far more than a photographer. He directed the groundbreaking 1969 film "The Learning Tree," making him one of the first Black directors in Hollywood, and followed it with "Shaft" in 1971, a film that helped launch an entire genre. He also published novels, poetry collections, and musical compositions. Parks demonstrated that photography could be a force for social change and that a self-taught artist from humble beginnings could reshape American culture.