--- title: Fields of Vision: Gordon Parks Photography Book description: A new book published by the Library of Congress features the photographer's images taken during his 1942-1943 internship with the Farm Security Administration canonical: https://time.com/3781364/fields-of-vision-the-early-work-of-gordon-parks/ author: Marie Tobias article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2011-09-28T18:00:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:41:22.275Z article:section: World og:title: Fields of Vision: Gordon Parks Photography Book og:description: A new book published by the Library of Congress features the photographer's images taken during his 1942-1943 internship with the Farm Security Administration og:url: https://time.com/3781364/fields-of-vision-the-early-work-of-gordon-parks/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt579fca6c2ddd02b9/69879940a988ca48986adb2d/43.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 43 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Fields of Vision: Gordon Parks Photography Book twitter:description: A new book published by the Library of Congress features the photographer's images taken during his 1942-1943 internship with the Farm Security Administration twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt579fca6c2ddd02b9/69879940a988ca48986adb2d/43.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Fields of Vision: The Early Work of Gordon Parks by [Marie Tobias](/author/marie-tobias/) ## Marie Tobias Sep 28, 2011 6:00 PM CUT  An orange picker's daughter in Daytona Beach, Florida, February 1943. An orange picker's daughter in Daytona Beach, Florida, February 1943.Gordon Parks by [Marie Tobias](/author/marie-tobias/) ## Marie Tobias Sep 28, 2011 6:00 PM CUT “I had bought what was to become my weapon against poverty and racism,” Gordon Parks famously recalled of purchasing his first camera at a Seattle pawnshop for $7.50\. And where the _LIFE_ staff photographer and director of _Shaft_ first applied that weapon, on a large scale, was at the Farm Security Administration (FSA), which had been absorbed into Office of War Information (OWI) in 1942, the year Parks started his internship. His year with the federal government—which hired photographers like Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans to document the agency’s work— is the subject of a new book by the Library of Congress, _Fields of Vision: The Photographs of Gordon Parks. “_Very few people know he worked for the FSA-OWI,” says W. Ralph Eubanks, director of publishing at the Library of Congress. “I had always thought Parks was biding his time there, until he could branch off and do what do what he wanted to do. But he was actually doing some very serious work.” While Parks was at the FSA-OWI in Washington, and suffering the effects of segregation—he was kicked out of a movie theater, told to eat in the back of a restaurant and dismissed by a department store clerk all in one day—he struggled to depict his experiences. Roy Stryker, head of the FSA-OWI’s information division, counseled Parks not to portray the bigots, but instead to talk people who suffered from their actions. The result was one of his more recognizable images, _American Gothic_. “What he was up against personally shows up in those photographs. Parks made a connection with African Americans he met in DC. He went into people’s homes, into their churches,” says Eubanks. “Stryker was encouraging him to get into the mind of his subjects and capture it. I don’t think any of the white photographers would have been allowed that kind openness.” The Parks book, which features an introduction by novelist Charles Johnson, is the ninth in a series the Library of Congress has rolled out, pulling from the 171,000 FSA-OWI negatives in its archive. With a focus on photographers not immediately associated with the department, like Parks, Marion Post Wolcott and Jack Delano, the _Fields of Vision_ series explores how the artists’ time at the agency formed the roots of later work. “We wanted to find images that you haven’t seen,” explains Eubanks. “We also wanted to choose photographs that documented the human condition, rather than just the Great Depression.” Of all the books in the series, Eubanks says it’s the Parks volume that has surprised him most. “He really did put himself into the work at the FSA-OWI completely. People should know more than just _American Gothic_.” In looking at the breadth of Parks’ work from that time, Eubanks says, “I got a better sense of a great photographer as a young man.” _The FSA-OWI archives—including over 1,600 images by Parks—can be viewed_ [_here_](http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsa/ "undefined")_._ _The books in the Library of Congress series, including_ Fields of Vision: The Photographs of Gordon Parks_, are available_ [_online_](http://www.amazon.com/Fields-Vision-Photographs-Library-Congress/dp/1904832873 "undefined")_._  An orange picker's daughter in Daytona Beach, Florida, February 1943. Gordon Parks  Neighborhood children in Washington, D.C., November 1942. Gordon Parks  A woman stands at a Washington, D.C. street corner, August 1942. Gordon Parks  Lorenzo Scola maneuvers a ship during mackerel chase in Gloucester, Massachusetts, June 1943. Gordon Parks  A young boy in Washington, D.C., June 1942. Gordon Parks  A Harlem newsboy in New York City, May or June 1943. Gordon Parks  A Fulton Fish Market hooker in New York City, May 1943. Gordon Parks  A police man in New York City, May 1943. Gordon Parks  Another Fulton Fish Market hooker in New York City, June 1943. Gordon Parks  Mess call at Camp Nathan Hale, Southfields, New York, August 1943. Gordon Parks  A woman and her dog in Harlem, New York City, May 1943. 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