With just a few images, Parks could speak volumes to the broad audience that subscribed to the magazine, frequently highlighting the race, class, and political issues facing America.Īs the first African-American staff photographer and writer at LIFE, Parks was able to share a unique perspective with readers. In addition to being an accomplished writer, filmmaker, and musician, Gordon Parks was widely known as a photographer through the photo essays he created for LIFE.
Images of experience captured on film, when put together like words, can weave tales of feeling and emotion as bold as literature.… bring together fact and fiction, experience, imagination, and feelings in a visual dialogue that has enormous impact on how we observe and relate to the external world and our internal selves.' -Philip Brookman, 'Unlocked Doors: Gordon Parks at the Crossroads,' Gordon Parks: Half Past Autumn, 1997
