Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks (1912-2006, ) is an African American photographer, musician, poet, novelist, journalist, activist, and film director. He has been an important and creative force in all of these fields. He began his public career as a freelance fashion and personality photographer in Chicago, but his first substantial work came as a documentary photographer with the Farm Security Administration. He has also performed and as a jazz pianist. He directed a number of movies during the "Blaxploitation" phase of American cinema, though the films cannot be classified that way. He was a notable campaigner for civil rights in the US. He has also been the subject of film and print profiles (notably "Half Past Autumn" (2000)).


A Kansas Portrait

YouTube Videos

Masters of Photography - Gordon Parks

Interview with Gordon Parks

Documenting America: Photographer: Gordon ParksWashington, D.C. July and August 1942

Parks' works include:

Books:
A Choice of Weapons (1964) (autobiographical)
To Smile in Autumn (autobiographical)
Voices in the Mirror (autobiographical)
The Learning Tree (autobiographical)
Published compilations of his poetry and photography:

Gordon Parks: A Poet and His Camera
Gordon Parks: Whispers of Intimate Things
Gordon Parks: In Love, Moments Without Proper Names
Arias of Silence
Glimpses Toward Infinity

Films:
The Learning Tree (1969)
Shaft (1971)
Leadbelly (1976)
Solomon Northup's Odyssey (1984)
Flavio, Diary of a Harlem Family (1964)
The World of Piri Thomas (1968)
Shaft's Big Score (1972)
The Super Cops (1974)

Music:
Martin (1989) (ballet about Martin Luther King)
Moments Without Proper Names (1987)

Documentaries about or including Parks:
Soul in Cinema: Filming Shaft on Location (1971)
Passion and Memory (1986)
Malcolm X: Make it Plain (1994)
All Power to the People (1996)
Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks (2000)
Baadasssss Cinema (2002)
Soul Man: Isaac Hayes (2003)

An exhibition of his photography was held at the Norton Museum of Art in 1999.