Gordon Parks

Vitals

Name: Gordon Parks

Birth Date: November 30, 1912

Place of Birth: Fort Scott, Kansas, United States of America

Nationality: American

Ethnicity: African American

Gender: Male

Occupations: photographer, composer, filmmaker, writer

Awards

Julius Rosenwald Award for photography, 1942; Syracuse University School of

Journalism Award, 1961; Frederic W. Brehm Award, 1962; Newhouse Citation,

Syracuse University, 1963; Philadelphia Museum of Art Award, 1964; New York Art

Directors Club Award, 1964, 1968; Carr Van Anda Journalism Award, University of

Miami, 1964; NCCJ Award, 1964; Notable Book Award, American Literary

Association, 1966; Emmy Award for Diary of A Harlem Family, 1968; Carr Van

Anda Journalism Award, Ohio University, 1970; National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Spingarn Medal, 1972; Library of

Congress National Film Registry Classics for The Learning Tree, 1982; President?s

Fellow, Rhode Island School of Design, 1984; American Society Magazine Award,

1985; National Medal of the Arts, 1988; National Association of Black Journalists,

Journalism Hall of Fame, 1990; Photographic Society of America, Progress Medal,

1992.

Multi−faceted photojournalist, Gordon Parks (born 1912), documented many of the

greatest images of the 20th century. He expanded his artistic pursuits from visual

images to literature with his first novel, The Learning Tree, which he then adapted into

an award−winning motion picture. Over the years, his works have included musical

composition, orchestration, and poetry. The limit of Parks' talent remains to be

discovered as he evolves with characteristic grace into the era of digital photography.

Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks was born in Fort Scott, Kansas on

November 30, 1912. He was the youngest of 15 siblings, the children of Andrew and

Sarah (Ross) Jackson Parks. The rumor survives, more than eight decades later, that Parks was born dead. In what must have seemed a miracle, the attending physician was able to revive the infant. The physician, Dr. Gordon, acquired a namesake in the process. The Parks family members were victims of extreme poverty. Andrew Parks was a dirt farmer whose wife passed away when Gordon was only 15. Following the death of

Sarah Parks, members of the Parks family dispersed, and Gordon went to St. Paul,

Minnesota to stay with an older sister. In St. Paul he attended Central High and Mechanical Arts High School, but the hardships of adult life set in before he received a diploma. Parks had failed to establish a congenial relationship with his

brother−in−law. Thus, life became difficult. The relationship grew increasingly

strained until Parks abruptly left his sister's household. Still in high school and jobless,

he carried few belongings with him into the frigid Minnesota winter. He survived by

taking odd jobs and tried to finish his education, but soon dropped out and drifted in

search of work.

Even as a very young child, Parks sensed his own gift of music. As a youngster, he

played an old Kimball piano whenever he could find the time. He was, in fact, able to

pick and play most instruments that crossed his path. That innate sense of music

enabled Parks to secure work as a piano player, albeit in the setting of a brothel. In

time Parks joined the Larry Funk Orchestra and went on tour until the band dissolved

in New York, at which point he found himself in Harlem and jobless once again. Parks

joined the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933 and used that employment to return to

Minnesota, where he married Sally Alvis. In 1935 Parks went to work for the railroad.

Parks was a porter on the Northern Pacific Railroad in the late 1930s when he

purchased a 35mm camera, a Voightlander Brilliant, from a pawn shop in Seattle. He

carried the $10 camera to Puget Sound and shot some pictures of seagulls. Those first

pictures were impressive, and they were on display at the developer's shop within

weeks. Soon Parks secured a professional "shoot" for a woman's apparel store in St.

Paul. Eventually his work was seen by Marva Louis, wife of prize−fighter Joe Louis.

In 1941, she convinced Parks to move to Chicago, where she used her influence to

procure photography assignments for him. In his spare time, Parks photographed the

urban ghettos, and again his work was impressive. Within the year, Parks received a

fellowship from the Julius Rosenwald Foundation to study photography. He used the

opportunity to apprentice with Roy Stryker at the Farm Services Administration (FSA)

in Washington, D.C., beginning in January 1942. Parks documented images of the

Great Depression. His first FSA picture, taken in 1942, was called "Washington, D.C.

Government Charwoman." The classic photograph depicted