Gordon Parks, Sr.

Gordon Parks, Sr. (1912-2006), American photographer, motion-picture director, writer, and composer. Parks was one of the earliest African Americans to find success as a photographer and movie director, paving the way for others such as directors Spike Lee and John Singleton.

Gordon Parks was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, the youngest of 15 children. He moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, when he was 15 years old and supported himself with various jobs—bellhop, waiter, piano player, and semiprofessional basketball player.

In 1937 Parks bought a camera and began to teach himself photography. The federal government’s Farm Security Administration hired him in 1942 to help document poverty around the country. In 1943 he worked briefly for the Office of War Information, photographing fighter pilots in training. He quit when he was not allowed to travel overseas as a combat photographer because of his race.

Parks was the first African American photographer to work for Life magazine, where he was employed from 1948 to 1972. His images for the popular periodical helped open the eyes of white Americans to the plight of the black underclass. One of his most famous photos was American Gothic (1942), which shows a black cleaning woman holding a mop and standing in front of an American flag. The woman’s pose echoes that of the farmer with his pitchfork in the painting of the same name by American artist Grant Wood.

During his time with Life Parks published photo essays on a wide range of subjects. The best known include those of a boy living in a Brazilian slum, of a street gang in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem, and of African American leader Malcolm X. The photographs that Parks took independently include a series of semiabstract color images he made using experimental techniques such as multiple exposures, painting on the photograph’s surface, and pasting images on top of each other.

Parks was also the first African American to write, direct, and produce a motion picture for a major Hollywood studio. The film, The Learning Tree (1969), was based on his 1963 autobiographical novel of the same name. With the popular action-adventure movie Shaft (1971), Parks entered the world of mainstream entertainment. He went on to direct other movies, such as Shaft’s Big Score! (1972), The Super Cops (1974), and Leadbelly (1976).

In addition to his collections of photography, Parks published a total of four volumes of memoirs, technical guides on photography, and works of poetry. He also composed music for and helped choreograph the ballet Martin (1989), which was based on the life of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

In 1988 Parks was awarded the National Medal of Arts. His son, Gordon Parks, Jr., also became a filmmaker and directed movies such as Superfly (1972) and Three the Hard Way (1974). See also History of Photography; History of Motion Pictures.