Unless you're quite old, or if you have worked as a photojournalist, the name Gordon Parks, Sr., probably won't mean much to you. But if you are an American, and especially an American of color, his work is something you will be glad to know about.

I met him just once when I was a very junior Public Information Officer at Fort Benning in 1967. I was escorting a couple of guys from National Geographic and we had lunch at the Officer's Club. Seemingly out of nowhere, Parks appeared and was invited to join us. I knew who he was, of course, because my road to a commission and a job as an Army Information officer had begun with nearly a year as a combat photographer with the justly famed First Cavalry (Airmobile), and this had brought me into contact with a who's who of the world's finest photojournalists.

Even before that, I spent half a year of evenings in libraries looking at back issues of America's best photo magazines--National Geographic, LIFE, Look, and Pageant.

The most important thing I recall from this chance meeting was that Parks had decided that print photojournalism was walking dead. He had enrolled in film school, and it was his intention to make movies. Which it was and which he did. And more's the pity that weekly magazines like LIFE and LOOK and PAGEANT no longer publish.

Anyhoo, here's a little peek at Gordon Parks and his work:

https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tVP1zc0TDbMKyjMS7IwYPSSS88vSsnPUyhILMouVijJSFXIzCvLLM5MyklVyE3MAwBvEBAv&q=gordon%20parks%20the%20invisible%20man&oq=Gordon%20parks%20the%20inv&aqs=chrome.1.0i355i512j46i512j69i57j0i22i30l2j69i60l3.11268j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&fbclid=IwAR1uUqZ4MorAcKSrsuyp0tmxNGTSkfNYsKh2X3JJDZq_2PV1_REq7o3waok

And, more generally:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Parks?fbclid=IwAR2hCoayj9SnheQaIJaakpMAB18tMwYpLHvnEFZklHqOsCHJhhwo7Zy8JcA


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Parks?fbclid=IwAR0cTFneJSfoCJCn0N2K6kBpnQUCszNfHVJy7wcAwF54WNkPnF3IpUrI4AY

I met him and his son. As an African-American career photojournalist myself of over 47+ years as a pro, Parks was an inspiration for my own career. As a Professor of Photography at the state university level, I exposed my hundreds of photo students to his life, career, and legacy.

He was truly a renaissance man, superb in many fields. No photojournalist will ever have a career such as his.

The HBO special: Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks (2000) is superb with Parks telling his own life story. I show it to all my photojournalism students.

https://www.amazon.com/Half-Past-Autumn-Works-Gordon/dp/B000BNXD4G

Cheers

https://www.facebook.com/GSWilliamsPhotography

Unless you're quite old, or if you have worked as a photojournalist, the name Gordon Parks, Sr., probably won't mean much to you. But if you are an American, and especially an American of color, his work is something you will be glad to know about.

I met him just once when I was a very junior Public Information Officer at Fort Benning in 1967. I was escorting a couple of guys from National Geographic and we had lunch at the Officer's Club. Seemingly out of nowhere, Parks appeared and was invited to join us. I knew who he was, of course, because my road to a commission and a job as an Army Information officer had begun with nearly a year as a combat photographer with the justly famed First Cavalry (Airmobile), and this had brought me into contact with a who's who of the world's finest photojournalists.

Even before that, I spent half a year of evenings in libraries looking at back issues of America's best photo magazines--National Geographic, LIFE, Look, and Pageant.

The most important thing I recall from this chance meeting was that Parks had decided that print photojournalism was walking dead. He had enrolled in film school, and it was his intention to make movies. Which it was and which he did. And more's the pity that weekly magazines like LIFE and LOOK and PAGEANT no longer publish.

Anyhoo, here's a little peek at Gordon Parks and his work:

https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tVP1zc0TDbMKyjMS7IwYPSSS88vSsnPUyhILMouVijJSFXIzCvLLM5MyklVyE3MAwBvEBAv&q=gordon%20parks%20the%20invisible%20man&oq=Gordon%20parks%20the%20inv&aqs=chrome.1.0i355i512j46i512j69i57j0i22i30l2j69i60l3.11268j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&fbclid=IwAR1uUqZ4MorAcKSrsuyp0tmxNGTSkfNYsKh2X3JJDZq_2PV1_REq7o3waok

And, more generally:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Parks?fbclid=IwAR2hCoayj9SnheQaIJaakpMAB18tMwYpLHvnEFZklHqOsCHJhhwo7Zy8JcA


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Parks?fbclid=IwAR0cTFneJSfoCJCn0N2K6kBpnQUCszNfHVJy7wcAwF54WNkPnF3IpUrI4AY