“I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social change wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera,” Gordon Parks.

These are the words of Gordon Parks, widely considered to be one of the most outstanding photographers of his generation. A recent documentary on HBO Max titled, “A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks” examines the life of this cinematic giant and his influence on the world of film, music, literature, and photography. As an African American photographer, Parks was uniquely qualified to chronicle the American experience through the lens of race, poverty, and urban life.

Born in 1912 in Fort Scott, Kan., Parks was a self-taught photographer whose early work began with the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Later, the Office of War Information (OWI) started him on the path to chronicling America’s social conditions. While working at the FSA, Parks photographed and documented Black lives in Washington D.C. He met and photographed Ella Watson, a government cleaning lady, in the photograph “American Gothic,” Washington, D.C. (1942).

According to Parks, “I had experienced a kind of bigotry and discrimination here that I never expected to experience. … At first, I asked [Ella Watson] about her life, what it was like, and [it was] so disastrous that I felt that I must photograph this woman in a way that would make me feel or make the public feel about what Washington, D.C., was in 1942. So I put her before the American flag with a broom in one hand and a mop in another. And I said, ‘American Gothic’— that’s how I felt at the moment.”

The photo would become one of his most iconic and would provide a commentary on dual Americas and contrasting lives of Blacks and Whites in America. Another of his famous photos is titled “Emerging Man” (1952), part of a photo essay project for Life Magazine, titled “A Man Becomes Invisible.” The image was inspired by Ralph Ellison’s seminal novel, “Invisible Man.” The photo is an imagining of how the book’s protagonist would matriculate in 1952 Harlem.

While at the OWI, one of Park’s first assignments was the 332 Fighter Group, also known as the Tuskegee Airmen. The first of its kind fighter group comprised solely of African American men.

Parks was also known for capturing the images of several of the most famous people of his era, including Muhamad Ali, Duke Ellington, and Malcolm X.

Although famously known for his photography, Parks was also a filmmaker and author, having directed the semi-autobiographical coming of age film, “The Learning Tree” (1969), based on the novel written by Parks of the same name, and the feature film “Shaft” (1971), which is widely considered to be the most famous of the so-called Blaxploitation genre of film. Other films directed by Parks include “Diary of a Harlem Family” (1968), which documented the dehumanizing aspects of poverty, and “Martin: A Ballet” (1989) about Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks.

In terms of Park’s influence on American history and African American culture, his influence cannot be understated. Just as the Black newspapers had served to tell the stories and provide counternarratives of the Black experience in America, following slavery and during the Jim Crow era, so, too, did the work of Gordon Parks in dispelling myths and shining a bright light on the often overlooked, misunderstood and invisible lives of those forgotten. Parks has influenced countless photographers, including Moneta Sleet Jr., who won a Pulitzer Prize for his photograph of Coretta Scott King and her young daughter and the funeral of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This photograph and the life’s work of Gordon Parks amplifies the words of Fred R. Bernard who once famously said: “A picture is worth a thousand words.”