Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks (1912–2006) 

Gordon Parks was a highly successful African American photographer. He was born in Fort Scott, Kansas on November 30th 1912 (https://www.biography.com/artist/gordon-parks). In 1925, at the age of fifteen, he moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota (Grundlberg in MICROSOFT ENCARTA, Reference Library 1993-2003).He supported himself with a wide variety of jobs including: bellhop, waiter, and piano player. 

He continued shifting from job to job until 1937 when he bought a camera and taught himself photography. While he began taking photos in 1937, it wasn’t until 1943 that he got his first job as a professional photographer. During World War II, the Office of War Information hired him to take photos of fighter pilots in training. After the war ended he put his experience to good use and was hired as a photographer by Life Magazine, becoming the first African-American they ever hired. He worked there from 1948 to 1971. 

He is best known for his photograph American Gothic, depicting an African American cleaning woman holding a mop and standing in front of an American flag, and his numerous photos of Malcom X. While he is primarily known as a photographer he was also, a movie director, he directed Shaft (1971) and a choreographer. He choreographed the 1989 ballet based on the life of Martin Luther King Jr, called Martin (Grundlberg in MICROSOFT ENCARTA, Reference Library 1993-2003). He died on March 7th 2006(https://www.biography.com/artist/gordon-parks).