Gordan Parks

Gordon Parks was born on Nov 30 1912 Fort Scott, Kansas he grew up in a time where segregation was still popular to use to separate white and black people. However his town couldn't afford a segregated high school so they had to integrate whites and blacks together. His mother died when he was just 14 and he slept next to the coffin that night. He was then sent from relative to relative only to be cast off to the street. He worked at a gentlemen's club until the stock market crash, he caught a train to Chicago where he worked in a flop house. His photography career started off when he became interested in photos of migrant workers and bought his first camera.

Many of Gordons photos are of working people or migrant workers They look expressionless or working when the picture was taken.

These were the pictures I took inspired by Parks photo The Red Couch.