• He was born on November 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, Kansas and died on March 07, 2006

• His full name was Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks

• He was a self-taught artist

• He was the first African American photographer for Life Magazine and Vogue magazine

• He was a Photographer, Director, Songwriter, Pianist and a Writer

• He directing the movie Shaft.

• One of his quote is “I suffered evils, but without allowing them to rob me of the freedom to expand."

• He suffered from discrimination as a child, his first camera

he owned was at age 25. He would take pictures of farmers or

capture moments were he would see that show discrimination to

African American

Gordon Parks

JAMES GALANOS FASHION

• This photograph was taken at Circa in the year 1967

• Gordon would mostly take pictures in color when it came to fashion

• He says, "I tend to use color when it dominates, while certain photographers feel that only black-and-white expresses the real truth of their subject matter," he remarks. "The spirit of color dwells within the subject matter, which is unending.“

• It means to me that he tends to take pictures in color when he knows it will express the meaning better as of picture with no color would

BEGGAR WOMAN AND CHILD

• This picture was taken in Estoril, Portugal in 1950

• He went to for LIFE magazine to find a photograph and talk about it

• He took this picture and describe it as, "beautiful, constantly sunny and steeped in the mannerisms of a tropical resort."

• He also said, "Here, strangely wed to the good life, are the poor. Hungered, living close to darkness, they too can be seen at lavish outdoor celebrations where the rich gather. But they are there with their palms lifted upward, begging for daily bread."

DEPARTMENT STORE

• He took this picture in Birmingham Alabama in 1956

• Parks went there to covering segregation in the Deep South, he's mission was to find a photograph that showed that

• He said, "Just a few miles down the road Klansmen were burning and shooting blacks and bombing their churches. . . . I fled Choctaw County over a back road two nights later. After reaching Birmingham at dawn I took the first plane to New York. Not until it roared upward did I breathe easy,"

• This is a picture that shows discrimination to African Americans; they can only go through certain places