I decided to research Gordon Parks who was a photographer for both magazines Life and Vogue. Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks was born on November 30, 1912 in Fort Scott, Kansas on a farm. He attended a segregated school where he faced a lot of discrimination and prejudice. After his mother dying when he was only 14, he left home to live with relatives and found pay working any odd jobs he could find.
Gordon Parks purchased his first camera at age 25. He was inspired by pictures that he saw in magazines. He then caught the attention of a woman named Marva Louis, wife of boxing champion named Joe Louis. She encouraged him to move to the big city so Parks and his wife moved to Chicago in 1940. He began to study portraits and photography in Chicago and in 1941 he won a photography fellowship with the Farm Security Administration for his images of the inner city. He also became a freelance photographer for Vogue. Parks worked for Vogue for many years, developing a different style that emphasized the look of models and garments in motion, rather than shooting them in poses.
Gordon Parks died on March 7, 2006.
No comments:
Post a Comment