November 30, 1912, Fort Scott, KS - March 7, 2006
My favorite picture he took
"American Gothic" is said to be Parks signature photo. He says it was the first professional image he ever took.
Gordon Park's style of photography mostly resembles social realism. He mostly photographed the life of African Americans in times of segregation. Examples of this:
He attended a segregated elementary school. The town was too small to afford a separate high school that would facilitate segregation of the secondary school, but blacks were not allowed to play sports or attend school social activities,[10] and they were discouraged from developing any aspirations for higher education. His mother died when he was 14.
His first photography job was in 1940, where he began a portrait business and specialized in photographs of society women. Parks's photographic work in Chicago, especially in capturing the myriad experiences of African Americans across the city, led him to receive the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship, which, in turn, contributed to being asked to join the Farm Security Administration under the auspice of Roy Striker.
Over the next few years, Parks moved from job to job, developing a freelance portrait and fashion photographer sideline. He began to chronicle the city's south side black ghetto and, in 1941, an exhibition of those photographs won Parks a photography fellowship with the Farm Security Administration.
I personally like Gordon Park's photography because its history, the events he captured really happened.
