Portrait of a Workman, Ben Wright

Photographer, author, filmmaker, and composer, Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks was the first African American photographer to work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and for the Office of War Information (OWI), as well as for Life and Vogue magazines. Parks grew up in the prairie town of Fort Scott, Kansas, the youngest of fifteen children. In 1938, he bought his first camera from a pawnshop in Seattle, and soon was making not only fashion photographs, but also images of the Chicago slums.

As a photographer for Life from 1948 through 1972, Parks covered an enormous range-from street gangs and the Civil Rights movement to Paris fashion shoots and Holly wood film stars. Under owner Henry Luce's direction, Life boasted the largest staff of photographers of any magazine, and Parks's colleagues included other FSA alumni such as Margaret Bourke-White and Eugene Smith.

Parks's immense talent was also expressed in his writing and in the films he made. In the 1960s, he became the first black director to work for a major Hollywood studio, coproducing, directing, and writing the screenplay for The Learning Tree, based on his 1963 novel. He also directed the action films Shaft! (1971) and Shaft's Big Score! (1972).

Parks made the AMAM's portrait of Ben Wright in conjunction with his work for the Standard Oil Photography project, a commission he won in 1944 through his former FSA boss Roy Stryker, who was hired to improve the company's corporate image. The project provided Parks with the opportunity to travel to small towns and industrial centers throughout the United States, photographing both company executives and workers, meanwhile often capturing iconic views of the American landscape along the way. Parks's ability to establish a rapport with his sitters is evident in this striking portrait.