Gordon Parks

Untitled (37.132), 1956

Gordon Parks Biography Gordon Parks (American, 1912–2006) stands among the most consequential artists of the twentieth century — a photographer whose camera became an instrument of conscience. Working across five decades, Parks trained his lens on the fault lines of American life: poverty, racism, segregation, and the quiet resilience of those living beneath them. Parks was born on November 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, Kansas, the youngest of fifteen children in a family shaped by poverty and the brutal realities of Jim Crow segregation. Self-taught, he purchased his first camera as a young man after a chance encounter with Farm Service Administration (FSA) contributing photographer and Magnum Photos co-founder Robert Capa. In 1942, Parks won a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship, leading to a pivotal position with the FSA under mentor Roy Stryker — formal training replaced by immersion in one of the most important documentary photography programs in American history. Gordon Parks’ photographer credits extend well beyond his FSA years. He became LIFE Magazine's first African American staff photographer in 1948, contributing landmark essays and celebrity portraits — including Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X — until 1970. In 1956, Parks traveled to the segregated south on assignment for Life, creating a photo essay entitled The Restraints: Open and Hidden, which chronicled the daily lives of an extended family in Alabama. The portfolio’s presentation in full color at a time when most photo essays were still being published in black and white lends further strength to Parks’ depiction of the Jim Crow south. Most of the photos for the Life series were presumed lost until they were rediscovered in 2011. In film, Gordon Parks directed The Learning Tree (1969), the first major Hollywood film written and directed by an African American, followed by the genre-defining Shaft (1971). He also co-founded Essence magazine in 1970. Gordon Parks’ photographs are held in major public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Library of Congress; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. His work has been exhibited at multiple global and national institutions including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. Jackson Fine Art has presented Gordon Parks in multiple exhibitions, including two solo exhibitions: The Segregation Portfolio (2013) and The Segregation Story (2015). His third exhibition with the gallery, The South in Color, premiered April 2, 2026.