Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks (American, 1912-2006)

A 1941 Chicago exhibition earned documentary photographer Parks a Rosenwald Fellowship to work for the FSA. While in D.C., Parks photographed African American cleaning woman Ella Watson; one resultant image, “American Gothic, Washington, D.C.,” modeled after Grant Wood’s famous painting, became emblematic of the Civil Rights struggle. In 1944, after OWI work, Parks moved to Harlem, photographing for Vogue, Standard Oil Photo Project, and Life (1948-68). An activist who sought to expose racism in America, Parks was the first African American Life photographer and a Hollywood film director, best known for Shaft (1971).

Important Source Material:

Stange, Maren. Bare Witness: photographs by Gordon Parks. Milan: Skira, 2006.

Gordon Parks: Collected Works, Volumes I-IV. Go¨ttingen, Germany: Steidl; Pleasantville, NY: Gordon Parks Foundation, 2012.

NHS