Passage I

Unlimited Horizons

[1] A high school dropout earning his living by waiting tables might not appear to offer much promise as a creative genius, since he didn’t finish high school. [2] Yet this waiter Gordon Parks, has went out to enjoy an extraordinary career of artistic achievement. [3] Born in 1912 on a farm near Fort Scott, Kansas, him being the youngest of fifteen children. [4] Although contending with poverty, his parents instilled in him love, faith, dignity, and to believe in his own abilities. (7)

The self-confidence was nourished by this upbringing helped propel Parks to artistic success as a photographer, author, film director, and composer. His many honorary degrees and his National Medal of Arts award make testification to the range of his talents. (10) Largely self-taught, as an artist his potential developed through his extensive reading and his keen observation of life and humanity.

In his early twenties, while working as a waiter in the railroad dining car of the North Coast Limited, Parks was moved by magazine photos of migrant farm workers and became intrigued by the possibilities of photography to shape people’s vision. He paid $7.50 for a used camera and took his first shots in Seattle—pictures of seagulls on Puget Sound. The owners of the shop that developed his film considered these photos so exceptional that they put them on display. Parks later earned a living and the respect of his peers as both a fashion photographer for Glamour and Vogue magazines, and also, as a photojournalist who chronicled the urban poverty of Chicago, New York City, and Rio de Janeiro.

Seemingly to be limitless, Parks continues to create, even though he’s over ninety years old. Recent projects include a piano sonata, a novel, and a documentary film. He is also the recipient of many professional and humanitarian awards. Parks considers himself better today at everything he had done because he keeps an open mind. He asserts, “My goal every day is to stretch my horizons.”