Madison Absher
Mr. Crosby
Pictures and Stories
21 October 2024
Gordon Parks Gordon Parks was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1912, and was the son of Sarah and Jackson Parks. He was the youngest out of fifteen kids. His father was a farmer, and his family was dirt poor. He attended a segregated elementary school. The town he lived in was too small to afford a separate high school that would facilitate segregation a second school, so blacks were not allowed to play sports or attend school social activities, and they were discouraged from developing any aspirations for higher education. But he was taught from his parents to value education and equality. When he was fourteen, his mother died. He was sent to live with his sister and her husband shortly after, but the situation ended with Parks living on the street by himself after his sister’s husband kicked him out. Later in his life, Parks was married and divorced three times. He married Sally Alvis in 1933, divorcing in 1961. Parks remarried in 1962, to Elizabeth Campbell. They divorced in 1973, at which …show more content…
as a correspondent with the Office of War Information. He later resigned in 1944. After moving to Harlem, Parks became a freelance fashion photographer for Vogue. He later followed Stryker to the Standard Oil Photography Project in New Jersey, which assigned photographers to take pictures of small towns and industrial centers. He did this job from 1944-1948. In 1948, Parks became the first black to become a photojournalist for Life magazine. A photographic essay on a young Harlem gang leader won Parks a staff job as a photographer and writer there. He worked for Life for twenty years, until 1968, completing more than 300 assignments. By the early 1960s, Parks was writing his own essays to accompany his photographs in Life. His photographs focused on poverty, black leaders, and
Mr. Crosby
Pictures and Stories
21 October 2024
Gordon Parks Gordon Parks was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1912, and was the son of Sarah and Jackson Parks. He was the youngest out of fifteen kids. His father was a farmer, and his family was dirt poor. He attended a segregated elementary school. The town he lived in was too small to afford a separate high school that would facilitate segregation a second school, so blacks were not allowed to play sports or attend school social activities, and they were discouraged from developing any aspirations for higher education. But he was taught from his parents to value education and equality. When he was fourteen, his mother died. He was sent to live with his sister and her husband shortly after, but the situation ended with Parks living on the street by himself after his sister’s husband kicked him out. Later in his life, Parks was married and divorced three times. He married Sally Alvis in 1933, divorcing in 1961. Parks remarried in 1962, to Elizabeth Campbell. They divorced in 1973, at which …show more content…
as a correspondent with the Office of War Information. He later resigned in 1944. After moving to Harlem, Parks became a freelance fashion photographer for Vogue. He later followed Stryker to the Standard Oil Photography Project in New Jersey, which assigned photographers to take pictures of small towns and industrial centers. He did this job from 1944-1948. In 1948, Parks became the first black to become a photojournalist for Life magazine. A photographic essay on a young Harlem gang leader won Parks a staff job as a photographer and writer there. He worked for Life for twenty years, until 1968, completing more than 300 assignments. By the early 1960s, Parks was writing his own essays to accompany his photographs in Life. His photographs focused on poverty, black leaders, and