Gordon Parks
Sign in to saveAlso known as Gordon Alexander Buchanan Parks, Gordon Alexander Parks, Gordon A. Parks
American photographer, musician, writer and film director (1912–2006)
Key facts
- Born
- Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks , ( 1912-11-30 ) November 30, 1912, Fort Scott, Kansas , U.S.
- Died
- March 7, 2006 (2006-03-07) (aged 93), New York City, U.S.
- Works
- Life photographic essays, Shaft , The Learning Tree , Solomon Northup's Odyssey , A Choice of Weapons (memoir)
- Children
- 4, including Gordon Parks Jr.
- Awards
- NAACP Image Award (2003), PGA Oscar Micheaux Award (1993) , National Medal of Arts (1988), Spingarn Medal (1972)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Fort Scott
- Place of death
- New York City
- Occupation
- director
- Employer
- Farm Security Administration
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Native language
- English language
- Genre
- portrait
- Movement
- social realism
- Image
- Gordon Parks.jpg
- Work location
- New York City
Show 14 more facts
- has works in the collection
- Whitney Museum of American Art
- Commons category
- Gordon Parks
- date of birth
- 1912-11-30
- date of death
- 2006-03-07
- manner of death
- natural causes
- ethnic group
- African Americans
- Commons gallery
- Gordon Parks
- Commons Creator page
- Gordon Parks
- cause of death
- cancer
- related category
- Category:Films directed by Gordon Parks
- copyright representative
- American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
- writing language
- English language
- birth name
- Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks
- name in native language
- Gordon Parks
Sources (15)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks (November 30, 1912 – March 7, 2006) was an American photographer, composer, author, poet, and filmmaker, who became prominent in U.S. documentary photojournalism in the 1940s through 1970s—particularly in issues of civil rights, poverty and African Americans—and in glamour photography. He is best remembered for his iconic photos of poor Americans during the 1940s (taken for a federal government project), for his photographic essays for Life magazine, and as the director of the films Shaft, Shaft's Big Score, and the semiautobiographical The Learning Tree.
Parks was one of the first black American filmmakers to direct films within the Hollywood system, developing films relating the experience of slaves and struggling black Americans, and helping create the "blaxploitation" genre. The National Film Registry cites The Learning Tree as "the first feature film by a black director to be financed by a major Hollywood studio."
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Gordon Parks” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.