Art activism isn’t just about acknowledging the activists that contribute today: we should also recognize and take lessons from the creative crusaders that lived before us. These are the ones who helped make it possible for us to freely express our thoughts on social issues, so that we can promote change in society.
Photographer Gordon Parks was born into poverty in Kansas in 1912. Parks was a visionary even in his youth, first garnering his inspiration from images of migrant workers published in a magazine. He went on to purchase his first camera from a pawn shop, and his skills were entirely self-taught.
Due to his own ambition, he acquired a photography job with The Farm Security Administration (FSA) that chronicled the nation’s social conditions at the time. This is where he began to channel the previous inspiration that spurred his interest in photography.
After the FSA closed in 1943, Parks became a freelance photographer intent on pursuing his passion to address humanitarian issues through his work. He became the first African American staff photographer and writer for Life Magazine, where he captured the social and economic impacts of racism and poverty through his photos while paving the way for more minorities to become professional photographers.
Parks wasn’t just taking photos of daily life. He was defining an era in our nation’s history. He showed segregation, Jim Crow, and racial prejudice where they festered every day in homes, on the street, and in shops. He sought to create an image of a social climate that need to be changed, and he believed that he could help that change to occur by using the universal medium of art.
He was also a composer and an author, focusing on the same subjects displayed through his passion for photography. He died in 2006 after a life of fighting for the ideals that he loved, while creating the art that he loved. Parks lives on in the spirit of his works, and the history that he has creatively documented for us so that we may learn from it and continue to grow as a society.
For his efforts, Gordon Parks is our Art Activist of the Week.
Learn more
http://www.gordonparksfoundation.org
Check out some photos
http://www.gordonparksfoundation.org/archive/
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