Gordon Parks is best remembered as the first African American to direct and produce motion pictures that were used in developing films that relate to the struggle of black Americans and their experience as slaves. Gordon was a prominent American photographer who documented issues of civil right, poverty, and African Americans in the years the 1940s through 1970s in glamour photography (Parks,2010). At the age of sixteen years old Parks found himself deep in poverty and homeless, he struggled through jobs to make a living. His inspiration to venture into photography was after he comes across a magazine that was left behind by a passenger in a train, inside the magazine there was a portfolio that documented the terrible conditions of migrant workers (Parks, 2005). This inspired park to buy a camera and start photography, he bought his first camera at a pawnshop in Seattle. He is best remembered for taking an iconic photo of poor Americans for Life Magazine.
Parks bec a me the first photographer in 1941 to receive a companionship from Julius Rosenwald Foundation; this was a big step in professional photography as he got a chance to work with Roy Stryker, a photographer by professionalism, at the photography section of Farm Security Administration (FSA) (Parks,2005). FSA was a government agency in Washington D.C whose objective was to call attention to the plight of the needy during Depression; it was here that Parks took his first professional photography and signature image that was recognized as America Gothic. This picture featured African American government chairwoman in Washington D.C., posed in front of America Flag. The American Gothic was suppressed by Roy Stryker, his new boss at FSA, the reason being that the white Americans especially people in the congressmen who funded the agency would be outraged. Racism at that time was not discussed openly, and it was only in the 1960s when the portrait was accepted as many people accept bitter commentary on America racism.
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Since his first encounter in photography, Parks was destined to great future in taking great photographs. From the 1940s through 1970s he worked tirelessly to cover major themes of each decade for Life Magazine, gang violence, social injustice, the civil right movement, segregation in the deep south and overwhelming poverty in America as well as Portugal and Brazil. Much of his work is concentrated on the awareness of racism particularly in America and the poverty lifestyle of the African American.
Parks photography named “Outside looking picture,” focuses on six young African American gazing upon something across a fence where there are white kids playing in the ground. The picture impression is that the kids are curious to join the white kids in playing but they are not allowed to play together with them and the fence barricades them from entering the field. In the context of the picture the chain linked fence represents the segregation, the barrier was meant to separate black from whites implying that the whites are more privileged than the African America kids. The black children are not given the same opportunities as the white children; Parks wanted to show how segregation was unfair because the black and white kids are the same and they all desire to have similar opportunities. Park also use d the context in this picture to give an impression of how the black kids are discriminated, the children in the picture are clinging onto the idea that they have not offended anyone to be treated in a discriminated manner and they deserve to play in luxurious playground as the white kids do, because they are not different from them. Parks’ Photograph has a positive impact on the objective to stop racial discrimination as it draws sad emotions of how these six kids are treated, the viewer will have empathy on these children, and this will make them aware of racial discrimination.
My impression in this photograph is that the six black kids are not permitted to enter the playing ground, despite being that there is no sign to warn that the black are restricted from the playing ground, but the body language of the children indicates that they are longing to join the white kids in playing and having fun, but the only thing restricting them from accessing the playing ground is the fence. The story behind the photograph is discrimination that the black experienced from the whites and how they were treated differently from their counterparts. This runs deep to the history of Americans as during the era of Gordon Parks there was a lot of racism and discrimination against the blacks and Parks photography was focused on these issues.
In conclusion, Parks is one of the most proactive photographers in USA he used his skills in photography to address segregation issues of civil right, poverty and racism, and discrimination of the African American people. Through his photography work, he has impacted the society in a positive way and also contributed many people to accept a bitter commentary on American racism.
`References
Parks, G. (2010). A choice of weapons . Minnesota Historical Society.
Parks, G. (2005). Voices in the mirror: An autobiography . Broadway Books.
