Legendary photographer, Gordon Parks, leaves his mark
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 last week, a family member said. He was
93.
Parks, who also wrote fiction and was an accomplished composer,
died in New York, his nephew, Charles Parks, said in a telephone
interview from Lawrence, Kan.
“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.
“Those special problems spawned by poverty and crime touched
me more, and I dug into them with more enthusiasm,” he said.
“Working at them again revealed the superiority of the camera
to explore the dilemmas they posed.”
In 1961, his photographs in Life of a poor, ailing Brazilian boy
named Flavio da Silva brought donations that saved the boy and purchased
a new home for him and his family.
“The Learning Tree” was Parks’ first film, in
1969. It was based on his 1963 autobiographical novel of the same
name, in which the young hero grapples with fear and racism as well
as first love and schoolboy triumphs. Parks wrote the score as well
directed.
In 1989, “The Learning Tree” was among the first 25
American movies to be placed on the National Film Registry of the
Library of Congress. The registry is intended to highlight films
of particular cultural, historical or aesthetic importance.
The detective drama “Shaft,” which came out in 1971
and starred Richard Roundtree, was a major hit and spawned a series
of black-oriented films. Parks himself directed a sequel, “Shaft’s
Big Score,” in 1972.
He also published books of poetry and wrote musical compositions
including “Martin,” a ballet about the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr.
(Associated Press)
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