Arts and Music Atlas

Works, Makers, Traditions
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme

Switch Atlas

Artist

Gordon Parks

Photographers

Gordon Parks was an American photographer, writer, and filmmaker who became the first African American staff photographer at Life magazine, where his photo essays documented poverty, segregation, and the civil rights movement with an approach that combined documentary rigor with strong personal empathy for his subjects. His photograph American Gothic, Washington, D.C., depicting a Black government cleaning woman posed before an American flag, became one of the defining images of his early career's engagement with racial injustice, and his later photo essays followed subjects including Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party. Parks was also the first major Black director in Hollywood, directing the 1971 film Shaft, and his career across photography, film, music composition, and writing made him one of the most versatile American artists of the twentieth century.

Facts
Birth Year
1912 1
Death Year
2006 1
Nationality
American 1
Birth Date
1912-11-30 1
Death Date
2006-03-07 1
Birthplace
Fort Scott, Kansas 1
Death Place
New York City 1
Active From Year
1940 1
Classification
Gender
Male 1
Connections

Practices

Film, Art Forms
Source Gordon Parks - Wikipedia
Music, Art Forms
Source Gordon Parks - Wikipedia
Photography, Art Forms
Source Gordon Parks - Wikipedia
In the Other Atlases

Same As

Gordon Parks

Also in Film and Media Atlas: the same subject.

Nationality

United States

Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.

Source Gordon Parks - WikipediaLead sentence 1
Quote, Lead sentence 1
Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks (November 30, 1912 – March 7, 2006) was an American photographer, composer, author, poet, and filmmaker, who became prominent in U.S.

Originated In

Kansas

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.

Sources
1. Gordon Parks - Wikipedia
  • Lead paragraph, opening sentence: birth year
    (November 30, 1912
  • Lead section
    Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks (November 30, 1912 - March 7, 2006) was an American photographer, composer, author, poet, and filmmaker, who became prominent in U.S. documentary photojournalism in the 1940s through 1970s-particularly in issues of civil rights, poverty and African Americans-and in glamour photography.
  • Lead paragraph, opening sentence: nationality
    was an American photographer, composer, author, poet, and filmmaker
  • Body, birth sentence: birth date
    Parks was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, the son of Andrew Jackson Parks and Sarah Ross, on November 30, 1912.
  • Infobox: death_date
    March 7, 2006
  • Body, birth sentence: birthplace
    Parks was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, the son of Andrew Jackson Parks and Sarah Ross, on November 30, 1912.
  • Lead section
    He is best remembered for his iconic photos of poor Americans during the 1940s (taken for a federal government project), for his photographic essays for Life magazine, and as the director of the films Shaft, Shaft's Big Score, and the semiautobiographical The Learning Tree.
  • Career, photography
    She encouraged Parks and his wife, Sally Alvis, to move to Chicago in 1940, where he began a portrait business and specialized in photographs of society women.
  • In Group: Documentary Photographers, Lead
    Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks (November 30, 1912, March 7, 2006) was an American photographer, composer, author, poet, and filmmaker, who became prominent in U.S. documentary photojournalism in the 1940s through 1970s-particularly in issues of civil rights, poverty and African Americans-and in glamour photography.
View the Source
Wikidata: Gordon Parks
Wikidata Q365682, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.