A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks never liked to hear about "the white man's world" and his amazing photos, published in „Life” magazine, he proved it was also his world. The world of charwoman Ella Watson, whom he photographed holding a broom with the American flag in the background, the lynched Emmett Till, Joanne Thornton Wilson standing in 1956 in front of the „colored entrance,” and detective Shaft, whom he introduced to delighted viewers in his most famous film. With respect to the elegance with which he portrayed evil, in John Maggio's film, his successors - and famous fans such as director Ava DuVernay and basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - wonder how he would document modern protests, while Malcolm X „looks” in the face of police shooting victim Breonna Taylor. Parks showed that the camera (and then the film camera), could prove to be extremely powerful weapons, or even, as Spike Lee puts it, a „fucking bazooka.”