Life magazine published a photo spread on the Harlem Gang Leader in the late 1940s. It showed the violence that had engulfed the New York area. Gordon Parks, a photographer, captured the nuance and complexity of an area often misjudged through his contemplative, but violent portraits.
Gordon Parks was also hired to a full-time job at the magazine as a photographer for the photo essay. He is the first Black photographer to join the staff. His long and prolific career as a photographer was solidified by this work.
Parks became one of the most famous photographers in America. His photographs of American life were his most prominent, but he was also well-known for his photos of the Black experience. He used his camera to capture the cruelty he saw in society, and photos as a means of protest. Segregated America is one of his photos.
Howard University announced late last month that it had acquired a large collection of Parks photographs. The collection, which spans five decades, includes 252 images. It is divided into 15 study sets that allow students to explore a variety of material.
Peter Kunhardt is the executive director of The Gordon Parks Foundation. He stated that you could have different classes looking at the same images and understanding different parts of why they are important.
Parks was born in Kansas, 1912 to a life of poverty and racism. Parks did not have formal training in the areas he excelled in, but he credits his “gift” and his ability to hear music. Parks was a self-taught artist in almost all of the art forms that he tried: listening to music by other composers to learn piano, taking pictures of seagulls in flight and learning how to use camera manuals to improve his photography skills.
He once said that he used his camera as a weapon to shine a light on things that would otherwise go unnoticed. In 1956, he took one of his most iconic photographs. It shows a family sitting around a separate water fountain in Mobile. Cora Taylor (one of the women in this photograph) is now 84 and discovered the photo through one her nieces. In May, she was honored at the Gordon Parks Foundation gala.
Parks’ photographs showed the struggle of Black Americans for equal rights during civil rights movements, as well depictions of poverty across the country.
Parks’ autobiography is actually titled A Choice of Weapons. This is because he said that his upbringing could have forced him to use guns or knives. But he chose to take a picture instead.
“I pointed my camera at people mainly who needed someone to speak for them. He said this in a 2000 interview with Charlie Rose.
His photos that highlighted racial issues and class issues earned him a reputation for being a fashion photographer. He depicted Paris fashion in 1949. He also followed Bettina Balard, Vogue’s fashion editor. His photos showed the impact of Spanish fashion on American women’s clothing. His fashion photos appeared in magazines such as Vogue, Glamour, and Life. Parks was assigned to the Paris bureau of Life magazine in 1952. He would continue to photograph French fashion and life.
He also directed Shaft (1971), the first Hollywood Studio Black action movie, and The Learning Tree (adaptation of his autobiographical novel about life in Kansas).
Parks made his first connection with Howard University in 1942. Parks was a frequent subject of the campus and students at the historically Black university in Washington, D.C., and they embodied many the same values as his work.
Kunhardt stated that he hopes students will understand Parks’ legacy through the collection.
Kunhardt stated, “Howard is home to a large group of like-minded people who will continue understanding why Gordon Parks is so vital.” “It feels like Howard University is an important place to preserve that legacy.”
The combined gift and purchase will be stored in the Moorland–Spingarn Research Center. It is intended to support initiatives that allow people to have access to Parks’ vision and work. Many of the collections are available online by the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, but students and researchers can request appointments in person based on the most recent COVID-19 protocols.
“Mr. “Mr. The Howard University’s collection of Parks’ timeless photos in the Moorland Spingarn Research Center will enable students and faculty to use his work as well as visiting scholars to build on his legacy of truth-telling and representation through the arts.
