Gordon Parks By: Uma Patel Period 3B

Biological Info AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER, MUSICIAN, WRITER AND FILM DIRECTOR Best remembered for his photographic essays for Life Magazine and as the director of the 1971 film, Shaft Born: November 30, 1912 (Fort Scott) Died: March 7, 2006 (New York City) Awards: Spingarn Medal, National Medal of Arts, Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards

Contributions to Photography Caring person with a profound bond to social justice Left behind a body of work on Race Relations, poverty, Civil Rights, and Urban life Social and Economic Impact on Racism Developed a new style of photography that allowed him to break the color line in professional photography while still being able to create extremely expressive images. According to Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Research Center at Harvard University, "Gordon Parks is the most important black photographer in the history of photojournalism. Long after the events that he photographed have been forgotten, his images will remain with us, testaments to the genius of his art, transcending time, place and subject matter.”

Things Left Behind… Film

q  Diary of a Harlem Family , 1968.. Narrator, still photography.

q  The World of Piri Thomas, 1968. 16mm. Director

q  The Learning Tree, 1969. 35mm. Director, producer, screenplay, music.

q  Shaft , 1971. 35mm. Director

q  Shaft’s Big Score! 1972. 35mm. Director

q  The Super Cops , 1974. 35mm. Director

q  Leadbelly , 1976 35mm. Director

q  Solomon Northrup’s Odyssey , 1984. 16mm, made for TV. Director, screenplay.

q  Moments Without Proper Names, 1987. 16mm. Director, screenplay, music.

q  Flavio, 1964. Director and screenplay

Books There are many but a few of the famous ones about technique include:

q  Flash Photography, NY: Grosset and Dunlap. 1947

q  Camera Portraits: Techniques and Principles of Documentary Portraiture, NY: F. Watts. 1948

q  The Learning Tree, NY: Harper and Row. 1963

q  A Choice of Weapons, NY: Harper and Row. 1966

q  Gordon Parks: A Poet and His Camera, NY: Viking Press. 1968

Achievements

"   1941- Won Julius Rosenwald Fellowship for Photography

"   1960- Photographer of the Year Award from the American Society of Magazine Photos

"   1972- Awarded the Spingarn Award from the NAACP

"   1984- Inducted into NAACP Hall of Fame

"   1986- Kansan of the Year

"   1988-National Medal of the Arts presented by President Ronald Reagan

"   2002- received Jackie Robinson Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award

"   2005- First “Gordan Parks Celebration” on October 6-9

“Children will Doll, Washington, D.C.” (1942) Social Injustice on Blacks and Whites not being able to be around each other

“A Harlem Family” (1967) Photo Essay in the Life Magazine Urban Poverty Hundreds of Letters poured in the office offering sympathy and money

“American Gothic, Washington, D.C.” (1942) Rallied support for the Civil Rights Movement

African Americans in the era did not have freedoms and opportunities symbolized by the American Flag in the background

“At Segregated Drinking Fountain” (1956) Racially segregated society Discrimination to man Encouraged Civil Rights Movement

“Beggar Man” (1950) Widespread Poverty

Bring light to actions people had to take in order for survival

Muhammad Ali (1966) Sweat-soaked boxing champ after a match was over

Portrait Photography

“Emerging Man” (1952) Social Rights The discrimination will be over

Works Cited http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/2006/1/06.01.04.x.html http://www.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/gordon-parks-100-years http://www.gordonparksfoundation.org