American Gothic, Washington, D.C. – (Gordon Parks) ◄ Previous Next ►

Artist: Gordon Parks

Date: 1942

Size: 36 x 28 cm

Technique: Photograph

Before he began his influential career in photojournalism at Life magazine in 1948, Kansas native and African-American photographer Gordon Parks worked for the Farm Security Administation (FSA), the government agency created to document the effects of the Depression. American Gothic was taken while Parks was employed by the FSA in Washington, D.C. This portrait of Ella Watson, a cleaning woman at the FSA offices, is Parks