Untitled, Chicago, Illinois (1950) by African American photographer, composer, author, poet, and filmmaker, Gordon Parks (1912-2006)
Gordon Parks is justifiably one of America’s most renowned black photographers. He has often been called the Renaissance man for his prolific activism, filmmaking, photography, musical compositions, writings, poetry and his many firsts. He was the first African American to work at Life magazine, and the first to write, direct, and score a Hollywood film.
Gordon Parks was a master of contradictions. His fashion photography captured the beauty and opulence of the 1940s and ’50s elite with carefully orchestrated framing and composition. But Parks was also renowned for his stirring images of poverty and racial discrimination. His ability to transition from the slums of Chicago’s South Side to the sets of French fashion shoots not only demonstrated his wide-ranging talent, but also his knack for convincing even the most private subjects to pose in front of his lens.
