A Highly Creative Man

Perhaps having a big name meant that Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks was meant to accomplish big things. After all, this famous man achieved respect as a talented composer, photographer, author, and filmmaker dedicated to documenting the racism that African Americans faced in everyday life. When he died at age 93, Parks had written 20 books and made 10 movies.

Born in Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1912, Parks was the youngest of 15 children and attended an elementary school for African-American students. At that time, one-fifth of Fort Scott's population was African American.

Parks' talents emerged as a young boy. He taught himself to play the piano by age seven. He later wrote original music and film scores and even a ballet. Parks wrote his first piece of music, No Love, as a teenager.

As an adult, Parks toured with Duke Ellington's famous jazz band as a jazz pianist. Parks also wrote his first piano concerto, which was performed in Venice, in 1956. He wrote the Tree Symphony 11 years later.

Parks' talents extended far beyond music. The ability to tell stories through his photography was also one of Parks' talents. When he was 25, Parks bought his first camera. He once commented on the purchase: "I bought what was to become my weapon against poverty and racism." He went on to spend two decades taking photographs that illustrated the Civil Rights Movement and took many photos of urban life in Chicago's South Side black ghetto. Parks won a photography fellowship, which paid him a stipend while he took photos that documented the struggles of working Americans in Washington, D.C.

By the late 1940s, Parks lived in New York City, where he photographed fashion for Vogue magazine. He later took fashion photos for Vogue in Paris. In 1948, Parks became the first black photojournalist to work for Life magazine, the "picture magazine" with the largest number of readers at that time. He was a Life staff photographer for two decades, and he continued to contribute photos for several more years. Parks specialized in photos that told of racism and poverty. But he was also known for portraits he made of famous celebrities and politicians.

The first book of Parks' work, Flash Photography, was published in 1947. A photo from this book, American Gothic, Washington, D.C., became one of his best-known pictures. In the photo, a black cleaning woman stands stiffly in front of an American flag while holding a mop and broom. The photo was meant to parody the original American Gothic painting by Grant Wood, a symbol of American culture, which shows a farmer with a pitchfork in his hand standing by his daughter in front of a white house. Parks wanted this photo to show the prejudice that he felt existed in Washington, D.C. He later received numerous awards for his work.

In 1987, Parks' first major photographic exhibition appeared at the New York Public Library and the Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University. His exhibit, Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks, opened at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C., late in the next decade. The exhibit was held at nine additional museums across the country, accompanied by a movie of the same name.

A New York Times article once called Parks "an artist with an eye for elegance." According to the article, "by the time he was 50 he ranked among the most influential image makers of the postwar years." During 2002, Parks received the Jackie Robinson Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, which is presented once a year to a candidate who demonstrates career excellence despite adversity. He was also inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum, in Oklahoma City.

Parks also wrote memoirs, novels, poems, and screenplays. His 1966 life story, A Choice of Weapons, received a Notable Book Award from the American Library Association. In 1970, Parks helped found Essence magazine and was a director there for three years. During this time, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) honored Parks with an outstanding achievement award.

In 2005, Parks published his fifth autobiography and a book of poetry. The University of Kansas also honored Parks with the William Allen White Award for writing merit. Because he could not accept the award in person, he was interviewed at home.






A.
The author reports how Parks began his career as an artist.


B.
The author explains how Parks was interested in writing and filmmaking.


C.
The author describes how Parks used various types of media to communicate his ideas.


D.
The author tells where Parks was born and how he viewed racial inequality at the time.