Famous Photographer Project

1. Gordon Parks
By: Uma Patel
Period 3B

2. Biological Info
AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER, MUSICIAN, WRITER AND FILM
DIRECTOR
Best remembered for his photographic essays for Life Magazine and as the director
of the 1971 film, Shaft
Born: November 30, 1912 (Fort Scott)
Died: March 7, 2006 (New York City)
Awards: Spingarn Medal, National Medal of Arts, Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards

3. Contributions to Photography
Caring person with a profound bond to social justice
Left behind a body of work on Race Relations, poverty, Civil Rights, and Urban
life
Social and Economic Impact on Racism
Developed a new style of photography that allowed him to break the color line in
professional photography while still being able to create extremely expressive
images.
According to Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Research
Center at Harvard University, "Gordon Parks is the most important black
photographer in the history of photojournalism. Long after the events that he
photographed have been forgotten, his images will remain with us, testaments to
the genius of his art, transcending time, place and subject matter.”

4. Things Left Behind…
Film
q Diary of a Harlem Family , 1968.. Narrator, still
photography.
q The World of Piri Thomas, 1968. 16mm.
Director
q The Learning Tree, 1969. 35mm. Director,
producer, screenplay, music.
q Shaft , 1971. 35mm. Director
q Shaft’s Big Score! 1972. 35mm. Director
q The Super Cops , 1974. 35mm. Director
q Leadbelly , 1976 35mm. Director
q Solomon Northrup’s Odyssey , 1984. 16mm,
made for TV. Director, screenplay.
q Moments Without Proper Names, 1987. 16mm.
Director, screenplay, music.
q Flavio, 1964. Director and screenplay
Books
There are many but a few of the famous ones
about technique include:
q Flash Photography, NY: Grosset and
Dunlap. 1947
q Camera Portraits: Techniques and
Principles of Documentary Portraiture,
NY: F. Watts. 1948
q The Learning Tree, NY: Harper and Row.
1963
q A Choice of Weapons, NY: Harper and
Row. 1966
q Gordon Parks: A Poet and His Camera,
NY: Viking Press. 1968

5. Achievements
" 1941- Won Julius Rosenwald Fellowship for Photography
" 1960- Photographer of the Year Award from the American
Society of Magazine Photos
" 1972- Awarded the Spingarn Award from the NAACP
" 1984- Inducted into NAACP Hall of Fame
" 1986- Kansan of the Year
" 1988-National Medal of the Arts presented by President Ronald
Reagan
" 2002- received Jackie Robinson Foundation Lifetime Achievement
Award
" 2005- First “Gordan Parks Celebration” on October 6-9

6. “Children will Doll,
Washington, D.C.” (1942)
Social Injustice on Blacks and Whites not being
able to be around each other

7. “A Harlem Family” (1967)
Photo Essay in the Life Magazine
Urban Poverty
Hundreds of Letters poured in the office offering sympathy and money

8. “American
Gothic,
Washington,
D.C.” (1942)
Rallied support for the Civil
Rights Movement
African Americans in the era did
not have freedoms and
opportunities symbolized by the
American Flag in the background

9. “At Segregated Drinking
Fountain” (1956)
Racially segregated society
Discrimination to man
Encouraged Civil Rights Movement

10. “Beggar
Man” (1950)
Widespread Poverty
Bring light to actions people had
to take in order for survival

11. Muhammad
Ali (1966)
Sweat-soaked boxing champ after
a match was over
Portrait Photography

12. “Emerging Man” (1952)
Social Rights
The discrimination will be over

13. Works Cited
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/2006/1/06.01.04.x.html
http://www.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/gordon-parks-100-years
http://www.gordonparksfoundation.org