{"data":{"id":"5146","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":5146,"topgoose_id":1019,"tms_id":5146,"display_name":"Gordon Parks","sort_name":"Parks Gordon","display_date":"1912–2006","begin_date":"1912","end_date":"2006","biography":"\u003cp\u003eGordon Parks’s photographs are situated\nat the intersection of art and journalism\nand are informed by his profound belief in\nthe capacity of the camera to serve as\n“a weapon,” as he put it, against “poverty,\nracism, discrimination.” Largely self-\ntaught, Parks would make history as the\nonly black member of the Farm Security\nAdministration’s photography corps;\nthe first African American staff photographer\nat \u003cem\u003eLIFE \u003c/em\u003emagazine, a post he assumed\nin 1948; and the first African American to\ndirect a major Hollywood film, 1969’s\n\u003cem\u003eThe Learning Tree\u003c/em\u003e, followed two years later\nby \u003cem\u003eShaft\u003c/em\u003e. Alongside fashion and nature\nphotographs, Parks produced portraits\nof musicians, artists, writers, and politicians,\nas well as photo-essays on subjects as\nvaried as the daily life of a custodial worker\nin Washington, DC; civil rights struggles;\nthe Black Panther Party; the \u003cem\u003efavelas\u003c/em\u003e of Rio de\nJaneiro; and the plains of his native Kansas.\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1966 \u003cem\u003eLIFE \u003c/em\u003esent Parks to\nphotograph Muhammad Ali during training\nin Miami. Having recently changed\nhis name from Cassius Clay and declared\nhimself a conscientious objector to the\nwar in Vietnam on religious grounds,\nthe world heavyweight champion was a\ncontroversial public figure. Parks’s\nblack-and-white photograph of a hunched-\nover Ali deploys chiaroscuro to emphasize\nthe emblem of the boxer’s power: his\nfists, which, wrapped in white bandages,\nseem to glow against the dark chair and\nnegative space framed by his legs as\nthe light catches them. Yet Parks’s depiction\nof a private, introspective moment, rather\nthan one of active athleticism, perhaps\nalso alludes to Ali’s status as a symbol for\nthe conscience of his times.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":false,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500019962","wikidata_id":"Q365682","created_at":"2017-08-30T16:03:05.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-10T07:04:05.543-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/5146/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/5146/exhibitions"}}}}