SongShi’s Value Portraits; Gordon Parks study and inspiration

Gordon Parks Essay

SongShi Liang

Gordon Parks is a black man, and he is one of the greatest photographers of the twentieth century in American. He also is a humanist. Therefore, we can see humanism, society justice from his work. The theme for his work are focus on race relations, poverty, civil rights, and urban life. Gordon Parks also is composer, author, and filmmaker. When he was young, he saw images of migrant workers in a magazine. He get inspired from the magazine. From Gordon Parks’s photography, I like 3 photo from his work. The first image is show two black kids playing a game with each other on the ground. Behind them is a simple and crude wooden house. There are full of garbage around the house. The image give me a feeling is this is not a good environment for children to live, study, and grow. The second image is a black boy lying down on the bed, reading the book. From what he wear, and the environment. I know he is poor. He doesn’t have money to buy the desk and lamp for study. However, he doesn’t give up to study. The third image show two kids eating their food. However, the house is so crowd that they have to sit next to the toilet to eat their food. Also the environment for them to live is so dirty. I think Gordon Parks want to use his photograph to convey the idea about poverty.