PDA

View Full Version : Photographer, filmmaker Gordon Parks dies


cocoa_femme
03-08-2006, 11:06 AM
Photographer, filmmaker Gordon Parks dies (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11717768/?GT1=7850)
Artist chronicled black America for 'Life' magazine, directed movie 'Shaft'

The Associated Press
Updated: 12:02 a.m. ET March 8, 2006

NEW YORK - Gordon Parks, who captured the struggles and triumphs of black America as a photographer for Life magazine and then became Hollywood’s first major black director with “The Learning Tree” and the hit “Shaft,” died Tuesday, his family said. He was 93.

Parks, who also wrote fiction and was an accomplished composer, died at his home in New York, according to a former wife, Genevieve Young, and nephew Charles Parks.

“Nothing came easy,” Parks wrote in his autobiography. “I was just born with a need to explore every tool shop of my mind, and with long searching and hard work. I became devoted to my restlessness.”

He covered everything from fashion to politics to sports during his 20 years at Life, from 1948 to 1968.

But as a photographer, he was perhaps best known for his gritty photo essays on the grinding effects of poverty in the United States and abroad and on the spirit of the civil rights movement.


Rest of story can be found here (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11717768/?GT1=7850).

Southlooper
03-08-2006, 06:47 PM
I haven't been able to get the theme to Shaft out of my head the whole day.

Rest in peace Gordon.

lawyerlee
03-09-2006, 02:48 PM
He was a really cool guy and made so many important, lasting contributions to art and race relations. He was from Kansas, too, you know. I don't think he felt much support here in life, but he will be celebrated now. I'm glad for that. Our governor is speaking at a memorial service for him. :)

Adaya
03-12-2006, 07:28 PM
Awww, I didn't know that. How sad. He was such gem to the African American community. I love so much of his photography and "The Learning Tree" is one of my favorite movies.

msnicolea
03-13-2006, 08:02 AM
Such a a renaissance man--was there anything he didn't do well? What an amazing life he had.