In this beautiful book, one of America's foremost photographers gives case histories and examples of how to achieve portraits of documentary quality and real distinction. This book is of permanent value to photographers, whether professional or amateur, for it carefully analyzes the actual problems involved in each portrait, tells you how it was done, how you can do it. The portraits between these covers represent the fresh documentary approach for which the author is most widely known. For this purpose, Mr. Parks photographed forty people, each important in his special field. Not all the subjects were easy to photograph. Some were camera-conscious, others were temperamental, hurried or impatient - and some were just not photogenic. But there are ways of overcoming such obstacles and Gordon Parks brings his unusual talents into play to do so. In assembling these portraits and the text which explains the problems each involved, Mr. Parks discovered that he has not only accomplished his primary object, but that his book is also an important source of information on a wide variety of American key personalities.