Born in Fort Scott, Kansas, Gordon Parks was a self-taught artist who became the first African-American photographer for Life and Vogue magazines. Parks faced aggressive discrimination as a child. He attended a segregated elementary school and was not allowed to participate in activities at his high school because of his race. After his mother’s death, Parks left home at age 14 and stayed with relatives for a short time before setting off on his own. After a long life consisting of photographing, filmmaking, music, and writing, the 93-year-old Gordon Parks died of cancer on March 7, 2006, but his legacy continued to go forward as one of the most influential photographers in history.
When you look at the majority of Gordon Parks photos, (the ones from Harlem) you’re able to not just appreciate the photograph, but actually feel something from it. You feel the pain, sorrow, and the hurt that the majority of his subjects are feeling, you feel the empowerment he is trying to portray. Something I have noticed specifically is that it seems as though the pictures Park has taken that rush these dark, yet influential feelings through your body tend to have no color. The black and white effect the images have allow the viewers focus not to be so much on the colors in the pictures as opposed to the important contents it contained. The way the majority of Gordon’s photos have the background blurred out makes the focal point in every picture very prominent, while still letting the blurred background be the thing that helps fill in the blanks about what was going on.
Gordon Parks purpose through his photography was quite clear, when he began documenting the social injustices the country was facing at the time. Having dealt with segregation and aggressive discrimination growing up, shedding light on the matter was definitely very important to Parks. Racial profiling was still a large factor in life at that time, and he was able to capture it from a different light than people were used to seeing; he portrayed through his pictures the normality of life for African Americans that emphasize the fact that they were the same despite the unpopular opinion. He was able to not only capture but portray the hurt that African Americans were all feeling at the time of these injustices and the social and economic impacts of racism as a whole. Parks intention for his photojournalism was not capturing the beauties of life, but instead putting a spotlight on the important things society needs to be paying attention to and changing.
Gordon Parks will be remembered for years to come because of the impact his photographs made through history. While I was scrolling through Parks’ photos, I felt a strong urge to go out to the world and capture reality. The way he captured true emotion and was able to make the viewer feel so many feelings at once using a single photograph was extremely inspiring to me. He makes me want to not only pay closer attention to the harsh realities of the world, but also to document and something about them. Parks was able to use photography to make his mark on the world and influence others to do the same.
Gordon Parks // Harlem
Gordon Park // American Gothic
Gordon Parks // Malcomb X March on Washington
In the Shadows
Hands Up, Don't Shoot
The Never Ending Massacre
While looking at the three images taken by Gordon Parks I noticed that some of the things he documented are still prominent in some way today. In my first image, Behind the Shadows - recreation of Harlem - I was able to replicate the sorrow of the mans face along with the reflection in the corner which I feel adds a lot to the photo. American Gothic to me portrays that the only opportunity that African-Americans had at the time were ones that no one else wanted. My recreation of the photo, Hands up, Don't Shoot signifies one of the most prominent things African-Americans deal with present day - police brutality. In The Never Ending Massacre - recreation of Malcomb X - I used an article from present day having the same headline topic as the newspaper from the 1960's, showing that to this day, the African-American society still go through some of the same things they had to go through when segregation and racism were prominent.
Together, my images portray the sad reality that African-Americans still face to this day. I used high contrast and dark lighting in Behind the Shadows to highlight the look of hopelessness in the subjects face and specifically eyes. Blurring the background and using a gradient effect in Hands Up, Don't Shoot, highlights the flag and the subject in my photo. Leading lines are also used in this piece to lead your eyes to my subject. Placing the paper closer to the camera (in the foreground), and having the finger lead to the headline, causes the viewers eyes to follow to the main two subjects, the article headline, and the subjects facial expression.