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I Have Never Known Anyone Important Enough To Consume Me In Anger Beyond A Few Hours. Better To Depart Their Existence Before They Poison Your Own.

-Gordon Parks

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I Have Never Known

Gordon Parks

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I Have Never Known Anyone Important Enough To Consume Me In Anger Beyond A Few Hours. Better To Depart Their Existence Before They Poison Your Own.

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I Picked Up A Camera Because It Was My Choice Of Weapons Against What I Hated Most About The Universe: Racism, Intolerance, Poverty. I Could Have Just As Easily Picked Up A Knife Or A Gun, Like Many Of My Childhood Friends Did... Most Of Whom Were Murdered Or Put In Prison... But I Chose Not To Go That Way. I Felt That I Could Somehow Subdue These Evils By Doing Something Beautiful That People Recognize Me By, And Thus Make A Whole Different Life For Myself, Which Has Proved To Be So.

People In Millenniums Ahead Will Know What We Were Like In The 1930's And The Thing That, The Important Major Things That Shaped Our History At That Time. This Is As Important For Historic Reasons As Any Other.

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So I Went To Chicago In 1940, I Think, '41, And The Photographs That I Made There, Aside From Fashion, Were Things That I Was Trying To Express In A Social Conscious Way.

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But I Was Very Disappointed That I Didn't Get A Chance To Go Overseas With That Group, Might Not Have Gotten Back But I Wanted Very Much To Go Because There's Not Much Of A Record Of The Exploits Of The First Negro Fighter Group.

I Feel It Is The Heart, Not The Eye, That Should Determine The Content Of The Photograph. What The Eye Sees Is Its Own. What The Heart Can Perceive Is A Very Different Matter.

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Washington, D.c. In 1942 Was Not The Easiest Place In The World For A Negro To Get Along.

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I Picked Up A Camera Because It Was My Choice Of Weapons Against What I Hated Most About The Universe: Racism, Intolerance, Poverty.

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Use Anger To Emotionalize Whatever Thing You Intend To Do In Life - Being A Painter, A Poet Or A Photographer

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