description Gordon Parks Overview
Gordon Parks was an American photographer and filmmaker, Life magazine's first Black staff photographer, known for 1940s and 1950s civil rights images.
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What was Gordon Parks's role at Life magazine?
Gordon Parks became Life magazine's first Black staff photographer in the late 1940s. His photo essays covered poverty, segregation, fashion, and civil rights.
What is Gordon Parks's American Gothic photograph?
American Gothic, Washington, D.C. is Parks's 1942 portrait of Ella Watson, a government cleaning woman, posed with a broom and mop. The title refers directly to Grant Wood's 1930 painting American Gothic.
Did Gordon Parks also make films?
Yes. Parks directed Shaft, released in 1971, making him a major figure in both photography and American film.
How did Gordon Parks start in documentary photography?
Parks worked for the Farm Security Administration in 1942, joining the New Deal documentary photography tradition. That placed him in the same broad institutional world as photographers like Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans.
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