BiographyGordon Parks was a pioneering African American photographer, filmmaker, journalist, and composer who became the first Black staff photographer at Life magazine, where his images of poverty, civil rights, and race in America reached millions of readers. His photographs of Harlem gang members, Southern segregation, and intimate portraits of American life defined documentary photography for a generation. He also directed the 1971 film Shaft, becoming one of the first major Black Hollywood directors.
