“I chose my camera as a weapon against all the things I dislike about
America—poverty, racism, discrimination.” –Gordon Parks, A Choice of Weapons, 1967

Gordon Parks was a dedicated humanitarian who broke the color line to become one of most celebrated American photographers of the 20th century. Born in Kansas in 1912, Parks experienced first-hand the worst American racism and poverty had to offer. He taught himself photography as a tool for documenting the social conditions he saw around him. Despite his lack of training, Parks became a photographer for New Deal-era government agencies and traveled the country documenting race relations and social inequality. He would continue to photograph American society, protest movements, fashion, and urban life in a long career as a Life magazine staffer and freelance photojournalist. A renaissance man, Parks was also a pioneering blaxploitation filmmaker, writer, painter, and composer.