Gordon Parks - A Tribute

Master Photographer, painter, musician, philanthropist, and filmmaker Gordon Parks has been a huge inspiration to me. He has created so many images that have touched many throughout the world. His camera seems to always be at the right place at the right time. And who can forget his 1981 photo essay of poor Brazilian boy Flavio da Silva, who was dying from bronchial pneumonia and malnutrition. The photo essay was so popular and touched so many people that it was able to raise funds and save the boy's life and pay for a new home for the family. For the people that don't know about Park's I wanted to quickly detail his career and include some of my favorite images

After buying a camera on a whim and self-teaching himself in 1938 at 26 years old, Gordon began working as a freelance portrait and fashion photographer. During this he was always inspired by the images of the Farm Security Administration's photography project of rural poverty. In 1941, he won a photography fellowship with the Administration, during which he create probably his most famous image, the photo of Ella Watson in front of the American flag in an interpretation of "American Gothic". He then worked in lucrative jobs as a photographer for Standard Oil and as a popular fashion shooter for Vogue magazine. Then, in 1949, Gordon made history by becoming the first black man to be hired as a staff photographer and writer for the famous LIFE magazine, a huge accomplishment for any photographer. There he worked for 20 years, creating groundbreaking projects, including the da Silva project, and the chronicling of the Civil Rights Movement, the rise of the Nation Of Islam, and taking popular portraits of celebrities and public figures. He also became a successful filmmaker, becoming the first black man director to be hired by a major Hollywood studio to make his adaptation of his autobiographical novel, The Learning Tree, and then went on to make the hugely popular Shaft. 

His images are very diverse and evocative, his most popular ones including his shot of Harlem gang leader Red Jackson hiding out in an abandoned building after being trapped by a rival gang, his shot of Ethel Sharreiff (the daughter of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad) flanked by her fellow sisters in Islam, his photos of the poor Fontenelle family trying to make it through and his vivid portrait of their youngest crying one tear, along with his celebrity portraits of Hugh Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Leonard Bernstein, and Ali.

Here are some of my favorite images: