Happy Birthday Renaissance Man and Media Master Gordon Parks
🍾Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks, born November 30, 1912, was known as a photojournalist. However, he also wrote books on photography, memoirs and fiction. In film, he has produced a TV documentary and directed the semi-autographical feature film The Learning Tree (1969). His largest grossing feature film hit was Shaft (1971). He composed the song “No Love”. He was one of the co-founders and editor of Essence Magazine.
Gordon was born and raised in Fort Scott, Kansas. He was the youngest child in a family of 15. At the age of 15, his mother died and he was sent off to live with his sister and her husband in Saint Paul, Minnesota. After a short stay, his relationship, with his brother-in-law soured. He was asked to leave.
In order to survive, he earned money working at a series of short-term jobs in brothels as a singer, a piano player and a bus boy. At times, he was a traveling waiter and he attempted to be a semi-pro basketball player.
In his 20s, Gordon and his first wife Sally (He was married 3 times.) moved to Seattle, Washington. There, he educated himself in photography. His photographic skills improved sufficiently so that he was able to find freelance jobs.
Marva Louis, wife of the heavyweight champ Joe Louis, happened to see one of his fashion shoots. She was so impressed, she encouraged him and his wife to move to Chicago. It was there that he was hired as a full time photographer at the Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information. Subsequently, he became a fashion photographer at Vogue and later a staff photographer at Life magazine.
During his life span of 93 years, Gordon was the recipient of many awards, honors and honorary doctorate degrees. His works can be found
- in many leading museum collections.
- The Gordon Parks Museum, at Fort Scott Community College, Fort Scott, Kansas.
- the Gordon Parks Foundation.
Gordon’s photojournalism focused on race relations, poverty, civil rights, celebrity portraits and fashion. But, it is worth mentioning that many of his photos obliquely comment on society inequalities.
Have a look at a comprehensive on article on Gordon Parks in Vogue Magazine In the Exhibition “Gordon Parks: Half and the Whole,” Moving Scenes of Public and Private Black Life
Here is a live interviewed by Charlie Rose.
See Gordon Parks’ Intimate Photos of Muhammad Ali in His Prime
Photo: Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons