Gordon Parks: Issues in Black and White

Most photographers stay true to their field of specialty; rarely do photojournalists successfully delve into studio portraiture without going back to their documentary background, and vice-versa. There are of course a few rare instances where a photographer can go beyond his field and be recognized internationally. Gordon Parks is one who jumped from one field to another, dealing with different issues in black-and-white and in color, all with seemingly little difficulty.

Gordon Parks' name might mean something different depending on who you ask; to a photojournalist, he's known for his memorable images on poverty and civil rights, to a fashion photographer, he's remembered for his 1960s portraits of Parisian women, to a film enthusiast, he's known for his documentaries and films on black issues.

Parks first became interested in photography in 1937 when he saw pictures of migrant workers in a magazine. After getting his feet wet in the industry, he became a fashion and portrait photographer on the encouragement of Marva Louis, Joe Louis' wife. In 1942, he began photographing for the Farm Security Administration (FSA), the very same organization which sponsored the photographers who captured these fine images. It was also around this time that he photographed his "American Gothic", a stoic portrait of cleaning lady Ella Watson (header photo above).

After the FSA disbanded, Parks moved to the Office of War Information (OWI), but he later left due to the anti-black sentiment he found there. The move gave him a chance to rediscover fashion photography; he was soon photographing for Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, Vogue and Time magazine, with his more famous fashion photos being done in Paris.

By the 1960s, Parks had moved on to films, first directing in "The Learning Tree", a film based on his semi-autobiographical novel, and then later on the hit movie "Shaft". It was also around this time that he covered the civil rights movement, taking portraits of Malcolm X and the people around him.

Towards the end of his life, Parks was still busy photographing, filming, writing and experimenting, and continued to receive accolades for his past achievements.

Looking through all of these photographs (which aren't even a fraction of Parks' oeuvre), one would think that they were taken by different photographers, yet such is the passion of Gordon Parks that he went and captured those subjects that he felt worth taking. While it may not matter much nowadays, the fact that he was black and wanted to get into the photography industry despite the difficulty was something that has helped today's generation of minorities. Hopefully, his photographs will stand the test of time to show that color doesn't matter when it comes to real quality and beauty.

The Gordon Parks Foundation is a good place to learn more about the photographer's works, from the civil rights issues to fashion, in black-and-white and in color. For hardbound recommendations, try Fields of Vision: The Photographs of Gordon Parks: The Library of Congress, Bare Witness: Photographs by Gordon Parks and Gordon Parks: No Excuses.

Bound for Glory: Color Pictures of Old America

The image of the bustling city of New York as seen from above immediately impresses upon the mind of a United States that can only go upwards and onwards, yet there was a time when America was struggling to get on its feet from the ravaging effects of the Great Depression. It seems like a distant legend now, but these color photographs revive the idea of an America that was once not so great, yet bound for glory. These are color pictures of Old America from the Library of Congress.

"Bound for Glory: America in Color" collected some 70 images of rural and urban America from 1939 to 1943 and exhibited these fantastic images all over the US. The images were taken from a larger collection of color and black-and-white images from the Library of Congress.

All of these photographs come from Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information (FSA-OWI). Many notable photographers took photos in behalf of the FSA, including Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Jack Delano, Arthur Rothstein and Gordon Parks. You might not recognize these names, but you've certainly seen a photo or two from at least one of them without realizing who took the picture.

The FSA was created in order to alleviate the conditions of the Great Depression in the US. While the program wasn't very successful, it's still famous today for its photographic unit and the brutally honest images it produced of the US at that time. While color photography was already available in different forms during the 1920s and 1930s, black-and-white was still preferred for its affordability, ease of use and ease of film processing. These color images were most probably made with Kodachrome, the earliest commercially successful color film for photography.

Armed with this handy film, the FSA-OWI photographers spread out to almost all of mainland United States, and even crossed over to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. It was thought that no color images of pre-war US were taken, until these same images were discovered in 1978. Some 30 years later, they've been made publicly available.

While there are over 107,000 black-and-white photographs that were made during the pre-war era in this Library of Congress collection, only 1,610 color images were made. This makes the collection even more memorable as they give a different level of vitality to these historical images, even to those more somber ones.

The color photographs are like a 3-dimensional bridge from America's rocky days in the depression to the momentous years of World War II. They show a people in the midst of hardship, but ever resilient and ever hopeful, on the brink of glory.

More color pictures of Old America can be found at the Library of Congress exhibit site over here. If you prefer, you can also find some of the images on Flickr in the set, 1930s-1940s in color. For the full set, go over here. You can get a hardcopy as Bound for Glory: America in Color 1939-43. On a related note, you might also want to get The Day in Its Color: Charles Cushman's Photographic Journey Through a Vanishing America and New Deal, The: 75th Anniversary Celebration.