Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America

By Carole B. Weatherford and Jamey Christoph

Winner of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Children’s Literary Work

Gordon Parks is most famous for being the first black director in Hollywood. But before he made movies and wrote books, he was a poor African American looking for work. When he bought a camera, his life changed forever. He taught himself how to take pictures and before long, people noticed.

This is a fixed-format ebook, which preserves the design and layout of the original print book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Albert Whitman Company
• Release date: Feb 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781497698468

Reviews for Gordon Parks

[froxgirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A most beautiful picture book, and not just for children. I go to exhibits of his photos every chance I get.

[sullywriter_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This picture book biography of the Renaissance man who successfully broke through many racial boundaries is a good introduction for young readers but it's unfortunately lacking in suggestions for further reading or web sites where readers could see examples of Parks's photography. And how about a bibliography or some source notes for the text?

[tnaewwf123 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Along with its Isaac Hayes soundtrack, Shaft is one of my favorite movies from the 70s. Being as big of a fan as I am of the film, I only knew of Gordon Parks as a director. You can image my surprise when I came across this book at work and saw how he was a famous American photographer before going into cinema. While reading this book, I was greeted to an inspirational story of how he went from being poor and having people doubt him to using photography to highlight harsh realities. Admittedly, I would have loved it to give more than a passing reference to Shaft since that movie helped usher in the genre of blaxploitation that changed how black people have been portrayed in film ever since. Still, I enjoyed reading this book and felt inspired to search out more of Parks’ photographic works.