- Gordon Parks: Segregation StoryBy Gordon Parks
- Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White AmericaBy Carole Boston Weatherford and Jamey Christoph
- Gordon Parks: Collected WorksOur PickBy Gordon Parks
- The Photographs of Gordon Parks: The Library of Congress (Fields of Vision)Charles Johnson and Amy Pastan
- Gordon Parks: I AM YOU: Selected Works, 1934-1978Our PickBy Peter Kunhardt and Felix Hoffman
- The Learning TreeBy Gordon Parks
- Voices in the Mirror: An AutobiographyBy Gordon Parks
- Personal Vision: PhotographsBy Adger Cowens and Gordon Parks
Important Art by Gordon Parks
American Gothic (1942)
American Gothic is a portrait of Ella Watson, who symbolizes the American black worker. Watson stands in the middle of the picture in front of the American flag that hangs down the wall behind her. She holds a broom in her right hand and a mop leans against the flag-covered wall behind her. She is dressed in her cleaning lady's uniform with her hair pulled back. Although Watson faces us, her gaze looks off to the side. She seems complacent, yet neither entirely tired nor inspired.
This photograph references the style and composition of the American artist Grant Wood's classic painting of the same title. Like Parks, Grant Wood was from the Midwest and had a particular interest in capturing the daily life of rural laborers. Wood's iconic painting American Gothic (1930) depicts a middle-aged couple (interpreted as either a farmer with his wife or daughter), standing in front of a house built in the Carpenter Gothic style. The farmer stands slightly in front of his wife and holds a pitchfork in his right hand. They both stand so prominently in the foreground that hardly any of the background is visible. Grant may have created American Gothic as an affirmative representation of traditional American values. Yet, the couple's stereotypical resemblance of Midwestern rural folks led art critics at the time to interpret it as a satirical commentary on small town culture.
While Wood's painting is meant to capture an authentic scene (although with a slight surreal quality) of the depression-era through the lens of a white American farm couple, Parks' recreation makes visible the often invisible labor performed by so many African-Americans in both rural and urban America. Parks undoubtedly had seen Wood's painting during one of his visits to the Art Institute of Chicago, when he lived in the city. Park's American Gothic "captures the essence of activism and humanitarianism in mid-twentieth century America." This photograph, one of Parks' most famous works, was not only an indictment of America, but even more so a challenge to the nation to live up to its magnificent creed "...that all men are created equal."
This early photograph was taken when Parks started working for the FSA. Roy Stryker, Parks' mentor at the time, encouraged him to continue working with Watson after seeing this photograph. Following Stryker's lead, Parks went on to create a series of photographs capturing her daily life - in church, at work, and in her home. The critic Lawrence W. Levine argues that the strength of the photograph, the reason it has had a lasting impact, is that it understands and honors the dualities of existence: "the victim and survivor, vulnerability and strength, exploitation and transcendence. And he captured these dualities in a format that allowed viewers to enter the process of investing the image with meaning." Paradoxically, Parks considers this image as over-done, feeling it was too forced and posed, thus undoing the narratives depicting Watson's every day struggle.
In mortuary Red and Herbie Levy study wounds of Maurice Gaines, a buddy who was found dying one night on a Harlem Sidewalk (caption from LIFE) (1948)
This scene of mourning revolves around the relationship between three young men, Red Jackson and Herbie Levy, and the victim, their friend Maurice Gaines. These two young men hover over the dead body of their friend, dressed in a suit with a flower on his lapel, as it lies in a decorated coffin on display at a mortuary. The scars on the victims' young face become apparent upon close inspection. The photograph is striking in how it candidly depicts these young men as children, trying to process the death of their friend. When Parks took the photograph, he did so in order to give the viewer a more complete picture of who Red Jackson and his friends were.
Red Jackson and Herbie Levy were members of the Harlem gang Parks photographed for a month in 1948. Red, on the left, was the leader of the group. Not only men caught up in violence and misgivings, Parks honored the full-scope narrative of Jackson and his comrades, including the quiet, contemplative moments of their day-to-day lives. While people were quick to dismiss men like Jackson, Parks hoped to create a sense of empathy between viewer and subject, bridging the differences of the "us vs. them" mentality that dominated race relations in the United States. As Jelani Cobb, staff writer of the New Yorker, explains, "Parks was visually articulating a premise fundamental to democracy: that one is able to see the humanity of one's fellow citizen."
James Galanos Fashion, Hollywood, California (1961)
Parks photographed Gloria Vanderbilt, as she modeled a Galanos gown in an office environment. The blurred bright, artificial lights and background colors accentuate Vanderbilt's gracious movement through the space. She quickly glides across the picture plane, ignoring yet performing for the camera, showing off the expanse of the gown's skirt as it bellows behind her, as she walks tall with hands behind her back. Her lightness of spirit expresses the diaphanous quality of the dress's chiffon fabric. The use of artificial lights, dynamic poses and plush interiors as a framing device are qualities characteristic of Parks' fashion shoots.
Color first entered Parks photography through his photo essays and in instances when color dominated his subject matter, as in his photographs of Mobile, Alabama in 1956. Yet, it defined his fashion photography, as it went hand-in-hand with his inclination to take his models out on location - to the streets, into plush interiors, or everyday settings. Thus Park's fashion shoots introduced a new mode of covering prêt-à-porter for Life magazine.
Influences and Connections

- Bourke-White, Margaret
- Ralph Ellison
- Roy Stryker
- James Baldwin
- Langston Hughes
- Malcom X
- Mickalene Thomas
- Spike Lee
- Carrie Mae Weems
- LaToya Ruby Frazier
- Joel Freeman