Arty Farty Friday ~ Gordon Parks, Photographer, Renaissance Man.

[Gordon] "Parks was a man of many pursuits — photographer, novelist, poet, memoirist, filmmaker, composer. But he is most remembered as a photographer. And while some of his images live on because they delight the eye with their beauty, others endure because of the way that they touched the hearts and minds of millions of LIFE’s readers and changed, if only just a little, the course of American history."



Above paragraph comes from
How Gordon Parks' Photographs Implored White America to See Black Humanity
~ John Edwin Mason, 2016.


Gordon Parks was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, son of Sarah and Jackson Parks, a tenant farmer, on Nov. 30, 1912 in Fort Scott, Kansas. He was the youngest of fifteen children. He attended a segregated elementary school. The town was too small to afford a separate high school that would facilitate segregation of the secondary school, but blacks were not allowed to play sports or attend school social activities, and they were discouraged from developing any aspirations for higher education. Parks related in a documentary on his life that his teacher told him that his desire to go to college would be a waste of money.

When Parks was eleven years old, three white boys threw him into the Marmaton River, knowing he couldn't swim. He had the presence of mind to duck underwater so they wouldn't see him make it to land. His mother died when he was fourteen. He spent his last night at the family home sleeping beside his mother's coffin, seeking not only solace, but a way to face his own fear of death. Soon after, he was sent to St. Paul, Minnesota, to live with a sister and her husband. He and his uncle argued frequently and Parks was finally turned out onto the street to fend for himself at age 15. Struggling to survive, he worked in brothels, and as a singer, piano player, bus boy, traveling waiter, and semi-pro basketball player. In 1929, he briefly worked in a gentlemen's club, the Minnesota Club. There he not only observed the trappings of success, but was able to read many books from the club library. When the Wall Street Crash of 1929 brought an end to the club, he jumped a train to Chicago, where he managed to land a job in a flophouse.

Parks purchased his first camera at the age of 25 after viewing photographs of migrant workers in a magazine. His early fashion photographs caught the attention of Marva Louis, wife of the boxing champion Joe Louis, who encouraged Parks to move to a larger city. Parks and his wife, Sally, relocated to Chicago in 1940. He began to explore subjects beyond portraits and fashion photographs in Chicago. He became interested in the low-income black neighborhoods of Chicago's South Side. In 1941, Parks won a photography fellowship with the Farm Security Administration for his images of the inner city. He created some of his most enduring photographs during this fellowship, including "American Gothic, Washington, D.C.," picturing a member of the FSA cleaning crew in front of an American flag.

After the FSA disbanded, Parks continued to take photographs for the Office of War Information and the Standard Oil Photography Project. He also became a freelance photographer for Vogue. Parks worked for Vogue for a number of years, developing a distinctive style that emphasized the look of models and garments in motion, rather than in static poses.

In 1948 Parks became a staff photographer for Life magazine, the first African American to hold that position. He remained with the magazine until 1972, became known for his portrayals of ghetto life, black nationalists, and the civil rights movement. A photo-essay about a child from a Brazilian slum was expanded into a television documentary (1962) and a book with poetry (1978), both titled Flavio. Parks also was noted for his intimate portraits of such public figures as Ingrid Bergman, Barbra Streisand, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Muhammad Ali.

I'm wary of getting into hot water via copyright rules, so have not included a string of Gordon Parks' photographs - there are several in large format at this link:
Photos of Harlem in 1943 by the iconic photographer Gordon Parks …

Also, do go to Google Image for numerous examples of the work of Gordon Parks.

I hope I'll be allowed to include just one - I particularly like this, titled
"No Known Restrictions: Anacostia Boys". (1942) (Anacostia, Washington D.C. - a Frederick Douglass housing project).

Parks’s works of fiction include The Learning Tree (1963), a coming-of-age novel about a black adolescent in Kansas in the 1920s. He also wrote forthright autobiographies—A Choice of Weapons (1966), To Smile in Autumn (1979), and Voices in the Mirror (1990). He combined poetry and photography in A Poet and His Camera (1968), Whispers of Intimate Things (1971), In Love (1971), Moments Without Proper Names (1975), and Glimpses Toward Infinity (1996). Other works included Born Black (1971), a collection of essays, the novel Shannon (1981), and Arias in Silence (1994).

In 1968 Parks became the first African American to direct a major motion picture with his film adaptation of The Learning Tree. He also produced the movie and wrote the screenplay and musical score. He next directed Shaft (1971), which centred on a black detective. A major success, it helped give rise to the genre of African American action films known as blaxploitation. A sequel, Shaft’s Big Score, appeared in 1972. Parks later directed the comedy The Super Cops (1974) and the drama Leadbelly (1976) as well as several television films.

Gordon Parks died March 7, 2006, in New York.

Sources
https://www.biography.com/people/gordon-parks-37379
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Parks
http://www.gordonparksfoundation.org/artist/biography
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gordon-Parks

ASTROLOGY

I cannot possibly leave Mr Parks without taking a very brief look at his natal chart! It has to be a 12 noon version as no time of birth is known.

Born 30 November 1912 in Fort Scott, Kansas.

A very strong showing of Sagittarius! Sun, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter all in the sign of The Archer, representing, among other characteristics a philosophical, open-minded, just, optimistic, and generous nature. Likely to be scholarly, inspirational, enthusiastic and expansive. That's just for starters! We cannot be certain of Moon's position without a time of birth. At noon Moon was in the last degrees of Leo, so if he were born later in the day, Moon would have been in early Virgo. I do like Leo Moon for him though. We also can't know Park's rising sign without time of birth. Even without that knowledge, there are several notable aspects and patterns in this well-integrated natal chart. I particularly like the aspects between planets at 00 degrees : Uranus @ 00 Aquarius, Mars @ 00 Sagittarius, Saturn @ 00 Gemini - there's a helpful sextile, a harmonious trine, and a balancing opposition involved there; planets and signs reflecting social concern, dynamism, and a solid work ethic. Planets' placements are forming several astrological patterns too - a Mystic Rectangle, a Yod, a T-square - among others, too many to interpret in this brief rundown.

Arty Farty Friday ~ "The Father of African-American Art"

 Portrait by Betsy Graves Reyneau.

Aaron Douglas
(26 May 1899 - 2 February 1979) - "The Father of African-American Art." I didn't choose him because of the title bestowed by his peers and those influenced by his example, but rather because I love his work and style. What better reason? His style is described in an exhibition catalogue as "combining angular cubist rhythms, seductive art deco style, and traditional African and African American imagery to develop his own unique visual vocabulary”.

Aaron Douglas was born in Topeka, Kansas, a baker's son. Topeka had a thriving black community. They followed progressive intellectual and social doctrines and had strong leadership which provided Douglas with many role models at an early age. Douglas was encouraged by his mother to continue his creative interest in art. His most serious decision in becoming an artist came from his exposure to the African-American printer, Henry Ossawa Tanner.

Douglas educated himself despite many obstacles. He joined the exodus to the north after high school, in order to earn money to pursue a college degree. In 1917 he attended the University of Nebraska. He graduated from Nebraska with a B.A. in Fine Arts in 1922. Douglas taught art at Lincoln High School in Topeka for two years, then was accepted as illustrator for Dr. Alain Locke's new book, The New Negro, published in 1925.

Douglas and his wife, Alta, later moved to Paris, France, where he expanded his knowledge of painting and sculpture. In Paris Douglas met his idol Henry Ossawa Tanner. On his return to the U.S. in 1928, Douglas became the first president of the Harlem Artists Guild. In 1929 he traveled to Chicago to create a mural for the Shermon Hotel's College Inn Ballroom. At the end of 1930 Douglas created another mural for Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. For his efforts, Douglas became known as the "Dean" among his fellow students. From 1939 to 1966 Douglas was a professor of Art at Fisk University. He later became department head before he retired in 1966.




Aaron Douglas is probably best known for his Aspects of Negro Life, a series of four murals completed under the sponsorship of the Works Progress Adminstration in 1934. The murals trace the history of African Americans from Africa through their migration to America's northern cities. In Aspects of Negro Life: Song of the Towers, Douglas presents jazz iconically in the figure of the saxophone player. The musician is an emblem of the intersections of African heritage, African American culture, and national identity.






A 12 noon chart has to suffice as no time of birth is known for Mr. Douglas.
Born 26 May 1899 in Topeka, Kansas.

Sun, Pluto and and Neptune in Gemini opposed by Moon (more than likely), Saturn and Uranus from Sagittarius. Mercury and Venus, planets of communication and the arts respectively were in Taurus, home sign for Venus and arguably one the most appropriate placements of Venus for an artist of any kind.

The Taurus planets are opposed by Jupiter from Scorpio. So, all in all the chart is dominated by oppositions indicating a "see-saw" dynamic: the need to constantly react until, with experience, it becomes clear that compromise between two opposing forces of the personality is the key to peace of mind. I wouldn't presume to guess what opposing forces were involved in Mr. Douglas's case, but being born long before racial integration in the US must have presented him with a feeling of "being in two minds" about many matters, in spite of the fact that he was fortunate in growing up within the support of a thriving black community. His work, while celebrating his roots, records the wrongs and hardships his fellow African Americans have faced.



THE CREATION



NOAH's ARK





INTO HUMAN BONDAGE






REBIRTH

How Come Hillary Clinton Has the African American Vote "tied up"?

S.C. poll: Clinton seen as better for African-Americans, those struggling financially.
By Nick Gass in Politico on 18 February.

It appears to be common knowledge that African Americans favour Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in current primaries. Saturday's South Carolina primary is taken as being a "done deal" for Hillary Clinton. It will be interesting to see, though, just how the voting pans out there.

Would anyone care to enlighten this comparative newcomer to these shores (been here for 11 years) why African Americans in general favour Clinton ? How has it come to be an accepted state of affairs? I could well understand, of course, the black community supporting President Obama landslide-wise, but Hillary Clinton?

Reading around the net I've come across a couple of ideas:
#1 That African Americans, or the majority of that group prefer to vote for The Establishment candidate, on the supposition that The Establishment will be more protective of them, and more likely to prevent a Republican win, with all its attendant threats.

#2 That there is, among some African American groups, underlying anti-Semitic feeling. Bernie Sanders background is Jewish. Wikipedia does have mention, scroll down a way, HERE.

It's good to note that some "celebrities" who might have sway with African American communities have endorsed Bernie. Spike Lee is the latest, joining Danny Glover, Dr Cornel West, "Killer Mike", and Harry Belafonte. I hope their support makes a difference.