Shortly after covering fur fashions for Life in New York in October 1948, Parks was dispatched to Paris for another fashion shoot, which would be featured in the magazine’s April 25, 1949, issue. His outstanding performance on these assignments, and his great success with the photographs of Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman on Stromboli, greatly impressed his editor, Wilson Hicks. During the summer of 1950, some months after Parks had returned to New York, Hicks offered him the “dream assignment”—to be the photographer for Life’s Paris bureau over the next two years.
In addition to the elegant fashions that Parks was accustomed to photographing, Paris was home to a bustling, expressive street culture, and the scenes Parks documented attest to his enthusiasm for being in the thick of this world, among the local people. His memoirs describe these years with lyrical nostalgia: “The soft fi ltered light of spring rain glistening off the Place de la Concorde; the splendid, marbled bridges and ancient buildings sitting, waiting, like glorious stage settings, overwhelming in their beauty” (To Smile in Autumn, 1979).
Parks’s subjects in these years encompassed everything from busy street markets to elegant weddings to the state funeral of Henri-Philippe Pétain, former Marshal of France, vilifi ed for his collaboration with the Nazis in World War II.
Untitled, Paris, France, 1951
King Carol II of Romania, Estoril, Portugal, 1951
The "Horrible Six" Practice Eyebrow Raising, Paris, France, 1952
Untitled, Paris, France, 1952
Mourner at Marshal Pétain's Funeral, Île d'Yeu, France, 1951
Mademoiselle Victoire Desno, Unemployed Old French Domestic, Paris, France, 1950
Beggar Woman and Child, Estoril, Portugal, 1951
Mayor Étienne Périer's Free Wedding Day, Paris, France, 1952
Untitled, Paris, France, 1951
Walburga, Baroness von Friesen, Estoril, Portugal, 1951
Jam Session in Cellar of Vieux Colombier, Paris, France, 1952
Boys, Estoril, Portugal, 1951
Photographers Waiting for Arrival of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Paris, France, 1951
Place de la Concorde, Paris, France, 1950