Biography
Gordon Parks (b.1912, Fort Scott, Kansas, US; d.2006, New York City, New York, US) was one of the most important photographers of twentieth-century America. Committed to social equality, he saw photography as a tool to move people to action and change lives.
Born into poverty and segregation in Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1912, Parks was drawn to photography as a young man when he saw images of migrant workers published in a magazine. After buying a camera at a pawnshop, at the age of 25, he taught himself how to use it. Despite his lack of professional training, Parks found employment with the Farm Security Administration (FSA), which was then chronicling the nation’s social conditions. Parks quickly developed a style that would make him one of the most celebrated photographers of his age, allowing him to break the colour line in professional photography while creating remarkably expressive images that consistently explored the social and economic impact of racism.
When the FSA closed in 1943, Parks became a freelance photographer, balancing work for fashion magazines with his passion for documenting humanitarian issues. His 1948 photo essay on the life of a Harlem gang leader won him widespread acclaim and a position as the first African American staff photographer and writer for Life, then by far the most prominent photojournalist publication in the world. Parks would remain at Life for two decades, chronicling subjects related to racism and poverty, as well as taking memorable portraits of cultural figures, including Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and Stokely Carmichael. His most famous images, such as Emerging Man (1952) and American Gothic (1942) capture the essence of activism and humanitarianism in mid-twentieth century America. His works also rallied support for the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement, for which Parks himself was a tireless advocate as well as a documentarian.
Parks’s style continued to evolve throughout three decades of his life expanding his style; he worked up until his death in 2006. During his lifetime Parks received numerous awards, including the National Medal of Arts in 1988, and over fifty honorary doctorates. He was also a noted composer and author and, in 1969, became the first African American to write and direct a Hollywood feature film based on his bestselling novel, The Learning Tree. In 1971, this was followed by the hugely successful motion picture Shaft.
Works
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Man Emerging, Harlem, New York, 1952 -
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Untitled, Harlem, New York, 1952 -
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Mr. and Mrs. Albert Thornton, Mobile, Alabama, 1956 -
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Ondria Tanner and Her Grandmother Window-Shopping, Mobile, Alabama, 1956 -
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Untitled, Alabama, 1956 -
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Untitled, New York, New York, 1957 -
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Untitled, Chicago, Illinois, 1963 -
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Untitled, Washington, D.C., 1963 -
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Daily Prayer, Brooklyn, New York, 1963 -
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Untitled, Harlem, New York, 1963 -
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Boy with June Bug, Fort Scott, Kansas, 1963 -
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Boy at Carnival, Fort Scott, Kansas, 1963 -
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Muhammad Ali, Miami Beach, Florida, 1966 -
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Eldridge Cleaver and His Wife, Kathleen, Algiers, Algeria, 1970 -
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Untitled, New York, New York, 1957 -
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Untitled, Harlem, New York, 1948
Press
‘The camera is my weapon of choice’: Gordon Parks’ era-defining shots of segregation – and those who defied it
March 2026
Gordon Parks’ photographs of Black Americans in the 1950s are essential viewing in London
March 2026
Gordon Parks Foundation Marks 20th Anniversary with Exhibitions Curated by Dawoud Bey and Bryan Stevenson
January 2026
Exhibitions
Books
News
Gordon Parks
‘PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT 1955-1985’, GETTY CENTER, LOS ANGELES: UNTIL 14 JUNE
The Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers & Gordon Parks
in ‘TYLER MITCHELL: WISH THIS WAS REAL’, PHOTO ELYSÉE, LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND
Gordon Parks: Camera Portraits from the Corcoran Collection
at National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Gordon Parks and Robert Mapplethorpe
in ‘ICP at 50: From the Collection, 1845–2019’, International Center of Photography (ICP), New York
Gordon Parks
in ‘Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys’, Brooklyn Museum, New York
Gordon Parks: Homeward to the Prairie I Come
The Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Manhattan, Kansas
Gordon Parks: Gordon Parks x Muhammad Ali: The Image of a Champion
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas
