1937
Table of Contents
How old was Gordon Parks when he started taking pictures?
After the death of his mother, Sarah, when he was 14, Parks left home. He lived with relatives for a short time before setting off on his own, taking whatever odd jobs he could find. Parks purchased his first camera at the age of 25 after viewing photographs of migrant workers in a magazine.
How did Paul Parks become a photographer?
Parks purchased his first camera in 1937 and committed himself to becoming a photographer. A consummate observer of the world, he found inspiration in magazines, museums, and books. He began experimenting with portraiture and some of his photographs were featured in the local African American newspaper in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
How did Robert Parks get his first camera?
Parks purchased his first camera at the age of 25 after viewing photographs of migrant workers in a magazine. His early fashion photographs caught the attention of Marva Louis, wife of the boxing champion Joe Louis, who encouraged Parks to move to a larger city. Parks and his wife, Sally, relocated to Chicago in 1940.
How did Gordon Parks change the world?
Gordon Parks was a self-taught artist who became the first African American photographer for Life and Vogue magazines. He also pursued movie directing and screenwriting, working at the helm of the films The Learning Tree, based on a novel he wrote, and Shaft.
What was the FSA in 1943?
In 1943, the increasingly unpopular Farm Security Administration (FSA) was abolished, pieces of which were then absorbed into the Office of War Information (OWI). Before the FSA closed though, Parks was selected to transfer to the OWI, which he did in October 1942. He was assigned as a war correspondent to cover the 332nd Fighter Group, the first regiment of black pilots, who were training near Detroit, Michigan. Parks’s attempts to travel with the pilots for their first deployment abroad were continually thwarted by officials in the federal government, some of whom were not supportive of black pilots receiving such publicity.
Why did Gordon Parks take this picture?
Gordon Parks took this photograph while on assignment for the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey), a corporation suffering a massive public relations crisis related to a rubber shortage that threatened the country’s ability to fight in World War II. Part of Parks’s assignment was to represent how the oil industry positively impacted life in the United States. Parks spent eight days with the Brown family, pictured here sharing a family meal.
Why was the grease plant at Pittsburgh so bad?
It was nasty because in every building and on every floor grease was underfoot. The interiors in the older buildings were extremely dark and absorbed plenty of light, so it was necessary to use long extensions and many bulbs. The extensions throughout the day were covered with grease….I might add that a day at the grease plant leaves one with an enormous appetite.”
What did the African American worker do in the Penola?
Employed by Penola, Inc., this anonymous African American worker toils to clean grease barrels by dipping them in boiling lye. The only human presence in a landscape of steam and steel, Parks uses dramatic lighting and a low angle to present him as a hero of industry. Understanding that his efforts were one part of an intricate system to supply essential lubricants to the military fighting overseas elevates him to the status of American hero, perhaps.
Why did the captions on the Parks pictures come with the caption?
Parks included captions with his photographs meant to provide background information. The caption states that the three subjects are waiting for their mother to prepare dinner. How does this additional information help you read the image?
What did Langston Hughes do for the Harlem Renaissance?
As a leader of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes addressed important racial issues of the day through his poetry, essays, and plays. His work inspired many African American artists, including Gordon Parks. Parks had moved to Chicago in 1941, and through his work with the South Side Community Art Center had further developed the psychological content of his portraits.
Where was Ella Watson’s photograph taken?
Compare this photograph with the one of Ella Watson similarly sitting by an open window, both taken by Parks in 1942 in Washington, DC. What details do you notice that help to tell each woman’s story? Why do you think he has us looking at the backs of their heads? Do you consider these works to be portraits? Why or why not?
Why is Ella Watson so famous?
The one image of Ella Watson standing in front of the American flag became iconic because Parks used these symbols of the flag out of focus and the cleaning woman with her tools—a very upright, serious woman—to point out the irony of inequality.
What did Gordon Parks understand?
BROOKMAN: I think that Gordon Parks understood from the beginning that all art is political, and he understood that through his associations with artists and writers and poets and sculptors, painters, all of the people working in and around Chicago during the late 1930s and early 1940s.
How old was Gordon Parks when he started his camera?
Courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation. When 25-year-old Gordon Parks picked up his first camera around 1937, he had already survived a period of homelessness, tried his hand at composing music, and worked as a waiter on one of Northern Pacific Railway’s luxury trains. He was years away from being Life magazine’s first …
What is the South Side Community Art Center?
The South Side Community Art Center was really a focus of extremely interesting and aspirational, high-quality art. It was a federally funded art center that had just opened its doors when Parks went there, and he was around artists like Charles White and Langston Hughes and Eldzier Cortor and Margaret Burroughs.
What is the Julius Rosenwald Fund?
The really transitional moment for him in Chicago is when he applies for and receives a fellowship from the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which was a really significant philanthropic organization based in Chicago that funded in part fellowships for African-American artists to further their careers.
What is a coal sketcher?
Gordon Parks. A coal "sketcher" is a helper on a coal truck. The number of trips he makes a day determines the extent of his salary. Harlem River, New York City., November 1946. Standard Oil (New Jersey) Collection, Photographic Archives, University of Louisville Courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation.
Who is the curator of Gordon Parks?
We spoke with exhibit curator Phillip Brookman when the show was at the National Gallery of Art in early 2019 to find out the origins of the show and what it teaches us about how Gordon Parks the self-taught photographer became the legendary Gordon Parks we know of today. Gordon Parks.
Who Was Gordon Parks?
Gordon Parks was a self-taught artist who became the first African American photographer for Life and Vogue magazines. He also pursued movie directing and screenwriting, working at the helm of the films The Learning Tree, based on a novel he wrote, and Shaft. Parks has published several memoirs and retrospectives as well, including A Choice of Weapons.
What was the name of the photograph that Parks took of the inner city?
Parks created some of his most enduring photographs during this fellowship, including "American Gothic, Washington, D.C.," picturing a member of the FSA cleaning crew in front of an American flag.
When did Genevieve Young and Parks get married?
He and Sally Alvis married in 1933, divorcing in 1961. Parks remarried in 1962, to Elizabeth Campbell. The couple divorced in 1973, at which time Parks married Genevieve Young. Young had met Parks in 1962 when she was assigned to be the editor of his book The Learning Tree.
Did the Shaft sequel come out?
Parks also directed a 1972 sequel, Shaft’s Big Score. His attempt to deviate from the Shaft series, with the 1976 Leadbelly, was unsuccessful. Following this failure, Parks continued to make films for television but did not return to Hollywood.
Who was the photographer that bought the first camera?
Famed Photographer. Parks purchased his first camera at the age of 25 after viewing photographs of migrant workers in a magazine. His early fashion photographs caught the attention of Marva Louis, wife of the boxing champion Joe Louis, who encouraged Parks to move to a larger city.
Did Gordon Parks have children?
They divorced in 1979. Parks was also romantically linked to railroad heiress Gloria Vanderbilt for a period of years. Parks had four children. His oldest son, filmmaker Gordon Parks Jr., died in a 1979 plane crash in Kenya.
Who was the first African American to direct a major Hollywood movie?
Filmmaker. In 1969, Parks became the first African American to direct a major Hollywood movie, the film adaptation of The Learning Tree. He wrote the screenplay and composed the score for the film. Parks ‘s next film, Shaft, was one of the biggest box-office hits of 1971.
What genre of action was Parks in?
With the film Shaft (1971), released by MGM, Parks provided the precise blueprint for the black action film genre called Blaxploitation . These films revolved around a sexy, omnipotent hero, modeled on the style of a Black James Bond. Parks instinctively understood himself as an artist from an early age.
What is Gordon Parks known for?
Gordon Parks is a photographer known for documenting the African American experience of racism and poverty from 1940s to 1970s. He said, "my purpose has been to communicate to somehow evoke the same response from a seamstress in Harlem or a housewife in Paris." Foremost a storyteller with a camera and a pen, his early work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and Standard Oil honed his documentary skills, enabling him to narrate a humanist view of African-American lives. Parks’ sensitivity, yet versatility in capturing hard-hitting news, feature stories, life on the street, individual portraits, and fashion collections made him indispensable to his editors and readers at Life magazine, enabling him to represent a more complex view of reality and communicate difficult truths to a mainstream audience.#N#Parallel to his professional ascent at the most prestigious illustrated magazine of the era, Parks’ career was defined by a series of barriers overcome. Parks’ race and even his status as a trailblazer enabled him to enter the hidden worlds of the poor, marginalized, and the oppressed. He became Life magazine’s "visual ambassador" straddled with the responsibility to maintain an equilibrium between journalistic ethics and the profound empathy for the individuals and communities he photographed.
What is the purpose of Wood’s painting?
While Wood’s painting is meant to capture an authentic scene (although with a slight surreal quality) of the depression-era through the lens of a white American farm couple , Parks’ recreation makes visible the often invisible labor performed by so many African-Americans in both rural and urban America.
What style of painting did Grant Wood paint?
Like Parks, Grant Wood was from the Midwest and had a particular interest in capturing the daily life of rural laborers. Wood’s iconic painting American Gothic (1930) depicts a middle-aged couple (interpreted as either a farmer with his wife or daughter), standing in front of a house built in the Carpenter Gothic style.
Who was Red Jackson’s friend?
When Parks took the photograph, he did so in order to give the viewer a more complete picture of who Red Jackson and his friends were. Red Jackson and Herbie Levy were members of the Harlem gang Parks photographed for a month in 1948. Red, on the left, was the leader of the group.
Who modeled Gloria Vanderbilt’s gown?
Parks photographed Gloria Vanderbilt, as she modeled a Galanos gown in an office environment. The blurred bright, artificial lights and background colors accentuate Vanderbilt’s gracious movement through the space. She quickly glides across the picture plane, ignoring yet performing for the camera, showing off the expanse of the gown’s skirt as it bellows behind her, as she walks tall with hands behind her back. Her lightness of spirit expresses the diaphanous quality of the dress’s chiffon fabric. The use of artificial lights, dynamic poses and plush interiors as a framing device are qualities characteristic of Parks’ fashion shoots.
Who was found dying on a Harlem sidewalk?
American Gothic. In mortuary Red and Herbie Levy study wounds of Maurice Gaines, a buddy who was found dying one night on a Harlem Sidewalk (caption from LIFE) James Galanos Fashion, Hollywood, California. Untitled.
What was the FSA in 1943?
In 1943, the increasingly unpopular Farm Security Administration (FSA) was abolished, pieces of which were then absorbed into the Office of War Information (OWI). Before the FSA closed though, Parks was selected to transfer to the OWI, which he did in October 1942. He was assigned as a war correspondent to cover the 332nd Fighter Group, the first regiment of black pilots, who were training near Detroit, Michigan. Parks’s attempts to travel with the pilots for their first deployment abroad were continually thwarted by officials in the federal government, some of whom were not supportive of black pilots receiving such publicity.
Why was the grease plant at Pittsburgh so bad?
It was nasty because in every building and on every floor grease was underfoot. The interiors in the older buildings were extremely dark and absorbed plenty of light, so it was necessary to use long extensions and many bulbs. The extensions throughout the day were covered with grease….I might add that a day at the grease plant leaves one with an enormous appetite.”
Why did Gordon Parks take this picture?
Gordon Parks took this photograph while on assignment for the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey), a corporation suffering a massive public relations crisis related to a rubber shortage that threatened the country’s ability to fight in World War II. Part of Parks’s assignment was to represent how the oil industry positively impacted life in the United States. Parks spent eight days with the Brown family, pictured here sharing a family meal.
Why did the captions on the Parks pictures come with the caption?
Parks included captions with his photographs meant to provide background information. The caption states that the three subjects are waiting for their mother to prepare dinner. How does this additional information help you read the image?
What did the African American worker do in the Penola?
Employed by Penola, Inc., this anonymous African American worker toils to clean grease barrels by dipping them in boiling lye. The only human presence in a landscape of steam and steel, Parks uses dramatic lighting and a low angle to present him as a hero of industry. Understanding that his efforts were one part of an intricate system to supply essential lubricants to the military fighting overseas elevates him to the status of American hero, perhaps.
Where was Ella Watson’s photograph taken?
Compare this photograph with the one of Ella Watson similarly sitting by an open window, both taken by Parks in 1942 in Washington, DC. What details do you notice that help to tell each woman’s story? Why do you think he has us looking at the backs of their heads? Do you consider these works to be portraits? Why or why not?
What did Langston Hughes do for the Harlem Renaissance?
As a leader of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes addressed important racial issues of the day through his poetry, essays, and plays. His work inspired many African American artists, including Gordon Parks. Parks had moved to Chicago in 1941, and through his work with the South Side Community Art Center had further developed the psychological content of his portraits.