USEFUL VOCABULARY

La photographie (n.) : shot full-face portrait full-length portrait close-up (adj.) : blurred sharp/soft (focus) evocative poignant well-captured (v.) : depict frame (exp.) : snapshot pan shot photo shoot blow-up frontal shot Linfluence (n.) : esteem admiration effect (v.) : sway shape mold impact convince talk into (adj.) : influential powerful effective persuasive charismatic brainwashed (exp.) : change peoples minds carry weight role model segregate/segregration/ discriminate/discrimination/condemn/condemnation... treat someone as though they were... look down upon be beneath/above someone inferiority/ superiority complex be deprived of one's rights prevent someone from doing something have preconceived ideas about racial discrimination symbolic value message. while whereas contrary to unlike
similarly both neither.

Gordon Parks was the first African American to work as a staff photographer for Life Magazine and the first black artist to produce and direct a major Holywood film, The Learning Tree in 1969 Perhaps his best-known photograph, which he titled American Gothic, was taken during his brief time with the agency. It shows a black cleaning woman (named Ella Watson) standing stiffly (rigidly) in front of the American flag best known as the Old Glory or the Sars and Stripes , a mop in one hand and a broom in the other. Mr Parks wanted this poignant picture to speak to the existence of racial bigotry and inequality in the nations capital ( Washington D.C ) . Despite the fact that this black woman is an American-born citizen , she is at the bottom of the social ladder being deprived of her rights. He must have been in an angry mood when he asked the woman to pose, having earlier been refused service at a clothing store, a movie theater and a restaurant. Anger at social inequity was at the root of many of Mr Parks best photographic stories. As a well-known photographer and a master of the camera , he felt that he might be able to fight what was wrong in American society by making people aware of the injustice that existed through his photos. In 1999 he told an interviewer that he saw the camera as a weapon against ..

Some people fight with the pen, others with the sword. Parks believed that he could fight against racial prejudice by using his camera to show what was happening. To a certain extent art is an effective means to denounce problems such as poverty, racism and discrimination. It cannot be denied that art can reach emotions in people by creating a form of empathy that helps a message to sink in and to take root. However, it could be argued that art is relatively trivial compared to the gravity of the issues it supposedly portrays. Some might say that as a general rule, that art is too abstract and obscure to have a significant impact on the way people think.