Half Past Autumn - Gordon Parks Questions and Answers

1) On the day Gordon Parks was born, how did the doctor save Gordon's life?
By having his sister dunk him in a tub of iced water.

2) Where was Gordon born? (what state?)

Fort Scott, Kansas

3) What did Gordon's class adviser, Ms. McClintock, tell him about college?

Since he was colored, it would be a waste of money because not only would he be racially profiled, he probably did not have the intellect to learn anything as he "wasn't college material".

4) How old was Gordon when his mother died?

14 years old

5) Where did Gordon move after his mother died?

Minnesota

6) Did Gordon graduate from college?

No

7) How did Gordon begin his fashion photography career?
He visited Frank Murphy, and Murphy's wife offered to let him shoot models, which in return surprised them with how good Parks' photos came out.

8) What is a "double exposure?"
When two exposures are made on the same film; when the camera shutter opens twice.

9) Who was boxer Joe Louis?
A heavyweight boxing champion whose wife encouraged Parks to move to Chicago to continue his career there.

10) What instrument did Gordon play?

The piano

11) What was the purpose of the Farm Security Administration?
To document the conditions of farms of the South during the Great Depression.

12) When Roy Stryker hired Gordon for the FSA, what was Stryker's first assignment for Gordon in Washington, D.C.?
To buy a top hat, eat at the restaurant across the street, and to go watch a movie.

13) Who was Ella Watson?
Ella Watson was the model in the painting "American Gothic". 

14) What was the inspiration for Grant Wood's American Gothic?
From his feelings of racial segregation and discrimination he has experienced throughout his life. 

15) What did Gordon learn from Stryker about photography?
That the camera can be wielded to fight for civil rights, as well as how much emotion a photograph can capture and induce.