Gordon Parks taught himsel to take photos, record films, write and compose. He was considered one of the most influential artists of the 20th century and best known for documenting the African American experience in powerful and poetic photographs. Gordon became the first black staff photographer at Life magazine and was the first black auteur to release a major Hollywood film, The Learning Tree in 1969, and he later made Shaft in 1971 and Shaft's Big Score! in 1972. These films defined the blaxploitation (blacksploitation) genre. Gordon also co-founded the Essence magazine and captured both the rich and famous and marginalised communities, especially his own.
Gordon Parks moved from Fort Scott, Kansas, to Minneapolis in 1928 and became a photographer in 1937. In Minneapolis and Chicago he was a photographer before going to Washington, DC and finding work with Roy Stryker at the FSA. Gordon worked as a fashion photographer at Vogue at the beginning of 1944, and when Life hired him in 1948, he accepted assignments in both fashion and photojournalism. He remained in Life until 1970, creating many of his most important photo essays. His many books include Camera Portraits in 1943, Born Black in 1971, Moments Without Proper Names in 1975 and more.
Gordon's photographs were among the most successful documents of their era. His photography was the one among many of his talents. Gordan was also an accomplished musician, composer, poet, novelist, and filmmaker, whose films include Shaft and Leadbelly. Gordon experimented with digital imagery and created subjective, abstract color landscape and still life photographs towards the end of his Life.
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