For this assignment, I made a multimodal presentation on the work of Gordon Parks. I chose to interpret Gordon Parks’ photographs because his aesthetically evaluative images of the people during the Civil war era. He is known for his most-well known piece of photography called, American Gothic, Washington, D.C. He basically first began his career with photography fellowship with the Farm Security Administration (FSA). From there he moved on to be a correspondent with the Office of War Information, but quit shortly after to become a freelance fashion photographer for Vogue and then his fame escalated from there. His main works dealt with the internal and external struggles of prejudices and racism during his time. I’ve chosen a range of photographs that depicted what all the classes experienced especially the African Americans. I also added aesthetically evaluative scenery pictures to demonstrate how he could capture the plight of the surroundings in a way that expressed what he was experiencing and going through as well.
Gordon Parks photographs helped me understand the true struggle he was going through, racism. I am really engaged in this topic because being of Asian decent; I had my fair share of racial slurs as well growing up in America but obviously not as brutal and harsh as him. I feel like his photographs will help me better my photography because I love photographing people and it’s nice to see it professionally done. I enjoy trying to capture their story in just one shot and Gordon Parks has clearly helped me shape my perspective in demonstrating that. I just feel that whether you’re quiet or loud or going through something, in one way or another this shows through a person’s expression and capturing that right moment is one of my greatest struggles and joys of photography.
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