Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks was an American photographer and musician. He was born on November 30, 1912 but died on March 7, 2006. Parks was famously known for his photographic essays for 'Life' magazine and also for being the director of the film 'Shaft'.

Some of Parks' works:

 

Some of Parks' fashion photographs:

Parks' photography career could be said to have started when he was 25 after purchasing his first camera after viewing photographs of migrant workers in a magazine. Marva Louis was one of the first people to notice Parks due to his early fashion photographs. Parks' fashion photography clearly captured the beauty of the 1940s and is also said to have captured the beauty of the 1950s elite with carefully constructed composition. His work is also said to communicate beauty, pleasure and vanity, this was seen in his photographs of fashionably dressed woman. Many of Parks' works display the models in a subtle and dramatic pose. He would also either place them in a studio or in realistic scenes using the city as a backdrop. This was very effective as it attenuated the beauty of the woman and drew more attention towards the clothes.

Many of Parks' works were heavily influenced by racism, segregation and many other aspects of his childhood. One of Parks' most successful photographs was called 'American Gothic Washington, D.C.' (image on the left), this photograph was named after Grant Woods' iconic painting, 'American Gothic' which displayed a farmer holding a pitch fork, standing beside his daughter. The photograph displays Ella, a black woman who worked on the cleaning crew, standing in front of an american flag holding a broom in one hand and a mop in the other. The Grant woods painting clearly shows the basic daily life of a white American farmer and how they would typically dress and Parks photograph imitates this by showing daily life of an average, working black woman and how they would dress.