Parks / Jones

Gordon Parks was an American photojournalist born in 1912 in Kansas. During the Great Depression, he struggled to find musical work and took up photography by studying books and documenting poverty and racial issues in Chicago. In 1949, he became the first black photographer published in Life Magazine, a monumental achievement given the magazine's popularity and racism at the time. Parks produced notable photo essays on topics like the Black Muslims and poverty in America throughout his career.