Author: LeeAnne Bulman
Source: Groundglass, February, 2004

Imagine being a photojournalist on your first big assignment in Washington D.C. You grab your camera and start walking up and down the streets, looking for things to shoot, checking out different locations for possible action. The excitement soon turns to disappointment. This is the 40s, and you are black. You are not welcome.
For Gordon Parks, a former Life photographer, this scenario was very real. Instead of shooting the photo stories he wanted, he began to take pictures of black people at their jobs and work. One of his most famous photos was taken during this time of a black cleaning lady, who worked for the federal government, standing in American Gothic fashion in front of a flag. They did not want the plight of the working black publicized and filed the photo until many years later.

Parks was in his 20s when he bought his first camera from a pawn shop, a $7.50 Voightlander Brilliant. After seeing photos taken by other photographers of his era, especially those by the photographers of the Farm Security Agency, he decided he wanted to make a difference in the world with the images he dreamed of shooting.
Ironically, his first job as a photographer was shooting fashion models for a store in the Twin Cities. The owner of the shop took pity on him and offered to let him shoot a roll of film to show what he could do. He borrowed a camera without trying it out before he got to the shoot, and its lack of familiarity led him to double expose all but one photo. That one photo was good enough to get him the job. From there he accepted the job in D.C. and eventually with Life.

Parks’ most powerful photos are black and white images he shot of people in poverty living their daily lives. His travels took him from his home town in Kansas to the poorest ghetto of Rio de Janeiro. He exposed bigotry and injustice with his lens and his words, as he eventually became a writer as well as a photographer. He even suffered from reverse discrimination when Life refused to allow him to cover the civil rights movement. The editors felt he would not be able to give an unbiased view of what was happening, They could not get anyone else to get a behind the scenes look, so he was given the assignment anyway.

To get his photos, Parks spent time living with and getting to know the people he shot and helping out any way he could to alleviate their suffering. Many times Life and it’s readers donated money to help the people in Parks’ photo essays.

Throughout his life, Parks continued to shoot fashion photographs and later in his career, after he built a reputation, he photographed many famous people including Ingrid Bergman and Muhammad Ali.
His mama’s philosophy of life is good advice for all photographers, "Work hard and have faith in yourself."
(Parks wrote and photographed for many books, along with doing movies. Some of them are available at the LaCrosse Public Library or through your favorite bookstore.)