Photographer of the Week - Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks

Parks was an African American man, born in 1912 in Kansas into poverty and was inspired from a young age to begin taking photographs after seeing pictures of migrant workers in a magazine. From the time he picked up a camera, Parks began to use his photographs to cover the social and economic impact that racism had on the time period. Parks would later join the Farm Security Administration, put in place to combat rural poverty, so that he could use his talents as a photographer to document the nation in the social and political climate of the time. As an African American, Parks had the edge over his contemporaries of the time; being able to gain amazingly personal photographs of members of the African American population around the country and using his disadvantage to his advantage.

Parks was particularly interested in the issues of civil rights and poverty, which is quite evident throughout his work. One of the works of his that most stood out to me was that of his photo series with Ella Watson, government chairwoman in Washington D.C. In the photo series, we take a look into the life of Ms. Watson, her children and grandchildren, and the living accommodations that they stay in. Yet arguably the most impactful image of the series is that of Ms. Watson posed in front of the American flag holding a sweep as to mimic the iconic painting, American Gothic. 

Parks style of being able to capture the raw expressions of the African American community, such as in his 1967 photograph of a family at a welfare office. For the remainder of his career, Parks would continue to capture haunting and compelling images filling every inch of the frame.