Gordon Parks, 1912-2006

 

Gordon Parks, 93, a gifted photojournalist, fine art photographer, filmmaker, poet, musician, and novelist, died March 9, 2006, at his home in New York City. The Fort Scott, KS, native was Life magazine's first black photographer and Hollywood's first major black film director.

 

From the Fort Scott, KS, homecoming for Gordon Parks, college professor and photojournalist Dave Labelle wrote a Perspectives remembrance following Park's funeral and burial in his hometown cemetery on the plains of his native Kansas. And from Manhattan, author Stephen Wolgast wrote a Perspectives column from the New York funeral for Parks where guests were told the photographer demonstrated the ability to "love without fear."

 

Read Parks' obituary and a story from the day he died with observations on his life and work by friends and admirers, including Magnum Photos photojournalist Eli Reed and one of Magnum's original founders, John G. Morris.

 

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