Great black and white photographers PART 2

Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks also known as just Gordon Parks.
Birth Date: November 30, 1912
Death Date: March 07, 2006
POB: Fort Scott, Kansas
POD: New York, New York

Gordon Parks was a self-taught artist who became  the first African- American Photographer for Life and Vogue magazines. He also went into movie directing and screenwriting, working on a firm called The Learning Tree, based on a book he wrote.

In Parks early life he attended a segregated elementary school, and was not allowed to participate in any activities at his high school due to his race. After his mothers death, Sarah, when he was 14, Parks left home. He lived with some relatives for a short time before setting off on his own, taking any jobs he could find.

Parks purchased his first camera at 25 after seeing photographs of migrant workers in a magazine. His early work caught the attention of a boxers wife, Marva Louis, who then encouraged Gordon to move to the big city. Soon after Parks became interested in the low-income black neighborhoods of Chicago's south side. In 1941, Parks won a photography fellowship with Farm Security Administration for his photos of the inner city.

His 1948 photographic essay on a Harlem gang leader won Parks a position as a staff photographer for LIFE magazine. Parks held this position for 20 years, shooting photographs on subjects including fashion, sports and entertainment as well as poverty and racial segregation. He was also took portraits of African-American leaders, including Malcolm X, Carmichael and Muhammad Ali.

Parks also was the first African American to direct a major Hollywood movie, the firm The learning Tree. He wrote the screenplay and composed the score for the firm. Parks's next film, Shaft, was one of the biggest box-office hits of 1971. Starring Richard Roundtree as detective John Shaft.

Parks was married and divorced three times. Parks had four children. His oldest son, filmmaker Gordon Parks Jr., died in a 1979 plane crash in Kenya. On March 7, 2006 in New York City Gordon Parks died of Cancer. He was buried in his hometown of Fort Scott, Kansas. Parks is remembered for his pioneering career work in the field of photography, which was an inspiration to many.