Gordan Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America
By Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrated by Jamey Christoph
Albert Whitman & Company, 2015. Biography.
While growing up, Gordon was told by his white teachers that all he and other African Americans would do when they grew up was be porters and waiters. As a 14-year-old, Gordon did become a waiter--until at the age of 25 he was inspired to purchase a used camera and taught himself to take on shooting portraits and fashion. A model encouraged him to take his talent to the city, where he won a chance to be a government photographer. Determined to use his lens to showcase racism, he chronicled a day in the life of a cleaning woman who worked in his building, capturing the famous photo “American Gothic”. He became a renaissance man whose photography not only made it in Vogue and Life magazine but also wrote novels and poetry, composed music, and made movies. Further information about Gordon can be found at the back of the book along with a sampling of his photography.
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