By: Samuel Lin

In late May, Howard University announced that they had obtained a collection of 252 Gordon Parks’ photographs, which shined a light on Black life in the U.S. Gordon Parks, one of the country’s most celebrated photographers, took many photos of the Black experience and American segregation, shining light on anti-Black injustice in America.

Gordon Parks was born in Fort Scott, Kansas in 1912. He experienced poverty and racism during his early life. He used his camera as a weapon, shining light on racial segregation.

Parks said in his autobiography that in his work he could’ve chosen knives or guns, but he chose the camera instead. He said in an interview in 2000, “I pointed my camera at people mostly who needed someone to say something for them. They couldn’t speak for themselves.”

Park’s pictures shined light on the struggle of Black Americans to gain equal rights. Park said, “I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera.”

In the late 1940’s, Gordon Parks got a full-time job at the magazine Life, which made him the first Black photographer to be hired on staff. He was also a filmmaker, poet, musician, and novelist.

In addition to his work on photographing segregation, he was also a fashion photographer. He photographed Paris fashion in 1949, and his fashion photographs appeared in prestigious magazines like Vogue, Glamour and Life.

In 1969, he wrote and directed The Leaning Tree, being the 1st African-American to direct and write a major Hollywood film. Two years later he directed Shaft, the first Black action film to be produced by a major Hollywood studio.

Gordon Parks continued working until his death in 2006, and was awarded the National Medal of Arts. His important work with his weapon, the camera, combated segregation, poverty, and racism, and social wrongs in our world.

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