People named Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks Born Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks November 30, 1912 Fort Scott, Kansas, United States Died March 7, 2006 (aged 93) Manhattan, New York City, United States Works Life photographic essays Shaft The Learning Tree Solomon Northup's Odyssey A Choice of Weapons (memoir) Children Gordon Parks, Jr. David Parks Leslie Campbell Parks Toni Parks-Parsons Awards NAACP Image Award (2003) PGA Oscar Micheaux Award (1993) National Medal of Arts (1988) Spingarn Medal (1972) Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks (November 30, 1912 – March 7, 2006) was an American photographer, musician, writer and film director, who became prominent in U.S. documentary photojournalism in the 1940s through 1970s—particularly in issues of civil rights, poverty and African-Americans—and in glamour photography. As the first famous pioneer among black filmmakers, he was the first African American to produce and direct major motion pictures—developing films relating the experience of slaves and struggling black Americans, and creating the "blaxploitation" genre. He is best remembered for his iconic photos of poor Americans during the 1940s (taken for a federal government project), for his photographic essays for Life magazine, and as the director of the 1971 film Shaft. Parks also was an author, poet and composer. Early life Parks was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, the son of Andrew Jackson Parks and Sarah Ross, on November 30, 1912. He was the youngest of fifteen children. His father was a farmer who grew corn, beets, turnips, potatoes, collard greens, and tomatoes. They also had a few ducks, chickens, and hogs. He attended a segregated elementary school. The town was too small to afford a separate high school that would facilitate segregation of the secondary school, but black people were not allowed to play sports or attend school social activities, and they were discouraged from developing any aspirations for higher education. Parks related in a documentary on his life that his teacher told him that his desire to go to college would be a waste of money. When Parks was eleven years old, three white boys threw him into the Marmaton River, knowing he couldn't swim. He had the presence of mind to duck underwater so they wouldn't see him make it to land. His mother died when he was fourteen. He spent his last night at the family home sleeping beside his mother's coffin, seeking not only solace, but a way to face his own fear of death. Soon after, he was sent to St. Paul, Minnesota, to live with a sister and her husband. He and his brother-in-law argued frequently and Parks was finally turned out onto the street to fend for himself at age 15. Struggling to survive, he worked in brothels, and as a singer, piano player, bus boy, traveling waiter, and semi-pro basketball player. In 1929, he briefly worked in a gentlemen's club, the Minnesota Club. There he not only observed the trappings of success, but was able to read many books from the club library. When the Wall Street Crash of 1929 brought an end to the club, he jumped a train to Chicago, where he managed to land a job in a flophouse. Photography At the age of 25, Parks was struck by photographs of migrant workers in a magazine. He bought his first camera, a Voigtländer Brillant, for $7.50 at a Seattle, Washington, pawnshop and taught himself how to take photos. The photography clerks who developed Parks's first roll of film applauded his work and prompted him to seek a fashion assignment at a women's clothing store in St. Paul, Minnesota, owned by Frank Murphy. Those photographs caught the eye of Marva Louis, wife of heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis. She encouraged Parks and his wife, Sally Alvis, to move to Chicago in 1940, where he began a portrait business and specialized in photographs of society women. Parks's photographic work in Chicago, especially in capturing the myriad experiences of African Americans across the city, led him to receive the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship, in 1941, paying him $200 a month and offering him his choice of employer, which, in turn, contributed to being asked to join the Farm Security Administration, which was chronicling the nation's social conditions, under the auspice of Roy Stryker. Government photography Over the next few years, Parks moved from job to job, developing a freelance portrait and fashion photographer sideline. He began to chronicle the city's South Side black ghetto and, in 1941, an exhibition of those photographs won Parks a photography fellowship with the Farm Security Administration (FSA). American Gothic, Washington, D.C. – a well-known photograph by Parks Working at the FSA as a trainee under Roy Stryker, Parks created one of his best-known photographs, American Gothic, Washington, D.C., named after the iconic Grant Wood painting, American Gothic—a legendary painting of a traditional, stoic, white American farm couple—which bore a striking, but ironic, resemblance to Parks' photograph of a black menial laborer. Parks' "haunting" photograph shows a black woman, Ella Watson, who worked on the cleaning crew of the FSA building, standing stiffly in front of an American flag hanging on the wall, a broom in one hand and a mop in the background. Parks had been inspired to create the image after encountering racism repeatedly in restaurants and shops in the segregated capital city. A later photograph in the FSA series, by Parks, shows Ella Watson and her family Upon viewing the photograph, Stryker said that it was an indictment of America, and that it could get all of his photographers fired. He urged Parks to keep working with Watson, which led to a series of photographs of her daily life. Parks said later that his first image was overdone and not subtle; other commentators have argued that it drew strength from its polemical nature and its duality of victim and survivor, and thus affected far more people than his subsequent pictures of Mrs. Watson. (Parks' overall body of work for the federal government—using his camera "as a weapon"—would draw far more attention from contemporaries and historians than that of all other black photographers in federal service at the time. Today, most historians reviewing federally commissioned black photographers of that era focus almost exclusively on Parks.) After the FSA disbanded, Parks remained in Washington, D.C. as a correspondent with the Office of War Information, where he photographed the all-black 332d Fighter Group. He was unable to follow the group in the overseas war theatre, so he resigned from the O.W.I. He would later follow Stryker to the Standard Oil Photography Project in New Jersey, which assigned photographers to take pictures of small towns and industrial centers. The most striking work by Parks during that period included, Dinner Time at Mr. Hercules Brown's Home, Somerville, Maine (1944); Grease Plant Worker, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1946); Car Loaded with Furniture on Highway (1945); Self Portrait (1945); and Ferry Commuters, Staten Island, N.Y. (1946). Commercial and civic photography Parks renewed his search for photography jobs in the fashion world. Following his resignation from the Office of War Information, Parks moved to Harlem and became a freelance fashion photographer for Vogue under the editorship of Alexander Liberman. Despite racist attitudes of the day, Vogue editor, Liberman, hired him to shoot a collection of evening gowns. Parks photographed fashion for Vogue for the next few years and he developed the distinctive style of photographing his models in motion rather than in static poses. During this time, he published his first two books, Flash Photography (1947) and Camera Portraits: Techniques and Principles of Documentary Portraiture (1948). A 1948 photographic essay on a young Harlem gang leader won Parks a staff job as a photographer and writer with America's leading photo-magazine, Life. His involvement with Life would last until 1972. For over 20 years, Parks produced photographs on subjects including fashion, sports, Broadway, poverty, and racial segregation, as well as portraits of Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Muhammad Ali, and Barbra Streisand. He became "one of the most provocative and celebrated photojournalists in the United States."

Gordon E Parks of Walla Walla, Walla Walla County, Washington was born on August 5, 1912, and died at age 59 years old in February 1972.

Gordon M Parks of Minneapolis, Anoka County, Minnesota was born on July 25, 1923, and died at age 60 years old in June 1984.

Gordon D Parks of Methuen, Essex County, MA was born on April 4, 1929, and died at age 72 years old on March 31, 2002.

Gordon E Parks of Broomes Island, Calvert County, MD was born on September 10, 1922, and died at age 68 years old on February 15, 1991.

Gordon E Parks was born on November 13, 1909, and died at age 87 years old on December 11, 1996. Gordon Parks was buried at National Memorial Cemetery Of Arizona Section 45 Site 2007 23029 North Cave Creek Road, in Phoenix, Az. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Gordon E Parks.

Gordon Parks of California was born on January 29, 1899, and died at age 76 years old in January 1975.

Gordon Parks of San Francisco, San Francisco County, California was born on May 30, 1948, and died at age 58 years old on January 5, 2007.

Gordon H Parks of Renton, King County, WA was born on October 25, 1925, and died at age 82 years old on April 30, 2008.

Gordon E Parks of Glendale, Maricopa County, AZ was born on November 13, 1919, and died at age 77 years old on December 10, 1996.

Gordon Parks of Denver, Jefferson County, CO was born on November 14, 1916, and died at age 81 years old on June 16, 1998.

Gordon Parks of Ortonville, Big Stone County, Minnesota was born on February 20, 1946, and died at age 39 years old in October 1985.

Gordon W Parks of Trinidad, Las Animas County, CO was born on June 8, 1925, and died at age 81 years old on July 1, 2006.

Gordon E Parks of Berrien Springs, Berrien County, MI was born on October 27, 1922, and died at age 81 years old on January 7, 2004.

Gordon Parks was born on June 17, 1915, and died at age 63 years old in October 1978. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Gordon Parks.

Gordon C Parks of Annville, Jackson County, KY was born on May 11, 1930, and died at age 71 years old on November 2, 2001.

Gordon E Parks of Prairie du Sac, Sauk County, WI was born on April 14, 1914, and died at age 78 years old on January 18, 1993.

Gordon J Parks of Clearwater, Pinellas County, FL was born on April 6, 1930, and died at age 67 years old on November 15, 1997.

Gordon J Parks of Drummond Island, Chippewa County, MI was born on April 30, 1930, and died at age 77 years old on April 16, 2008.

Gordon W Parks of Bay City, Bay County, MI was born on April 16, 1923, and died at age 75 years old on January 14, 1999.

Gordon Parks was born on July 16, 1924, and died at age 49 years old in December 1973. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Gordon Parks.

Gordon S Parks was born on September 27, 1934, and died at age 62 years old on December 6, 1996. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Gordon S Parks.

Gordon M Parks of Frederick, Frederick County, MD was born on July 28, 1916, and died at age 88 years old on October 26, 2004.

Gordon Parks was born on May 31, 1907, and died at age 60 years old in September 1967. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Gordon Parks.

Gordon Parks of Dahlonega, Lumpkin County, GA was born on May 6, 1886, and died at age 81 years old on January 15, 1968.

Gordon Parks of Clarkesville, Habersham County, GA was born on February 24, 1928, and died at age 80 years old on June 10, 2008.

Gordon T Parks of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, OH was born on January 3, 1912, and died at age 85 years old on November 5, 1997.

Gordon Parks of Homestead, Miami-Dade County, Florida was born on August 30, 1926, and died at age 61 years old in August 1987.

Gordon E Parks of Moorestown, Burlington County, NJ was born on September 11, 1942, and died at age 68 years old on October 7, 2010.