Skip to main content

Oral history interview with Gordon Parks, 1964 Dec. 30

View
@ Archives of American Art

Doud, Richard Keith Stryker, Roy Emerson United States. Farm Security Administration New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project

Description

New York (State)19 Pages, TranscriptOriginally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 1 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 1 min.Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.An interview of Gordon Parks conducted 1964 Dec. 30, by Richard Doud, for the Archives of American Art, in New York, N.Y. Parks speaks of his background; his early interest in photography; influences on him; his early career as a fashion photographer; joining the Farm Security Administration; his early impressions of the FSA; Roy Stryker's influence and guidance; how being Black and the experience of racism influenced his ability to relate to his subjects; memorable people he met during the FSA years; his post-FSA career, including his novels and his work for LIFE; and his opinions about the FSA's impact on people and on photography.Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Gordon Parks, 1964 Dec. 30. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.Gordon Parks (1912-2006) was a filmmaker, author, photographer, and composer from New York, N.Y.English .This interview conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750...

Record Contributed By

Archives of American Art

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution