At 16, Parks found himself homeless and did everything he could do make money, from waiting tables to playing piano in a brothel to mopping floors. As Parks tells it, his first foray into photography came after he found a magazine left behind by a passenger on a train. A portfolio inside the magazine, documenting the terrible living conditions of migrant workers inspired Parks to buy his first camera, a Voightlander Brilliant, at a pawnshop in …
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…Noon, coming out in September from Bulfinch Press, is Parks's book of nudes and will be accompanied by a CD of his own musical compositions. "After working so hard at showing the desolation and the poverty, I have a right to show something beautiful as well," Parks explains. "It's all there, and you've done only half the job if you don't do that." Gordon Parks certainly need not worry about only doing half the job.