Gordon Parks

**Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks** ( bɛ dɔɣi o la silimiingoli November bɛɣu pihita dali , yuuni 1912  ka o kani silimiingoli March dabaayɔpoin dali , yuuni 2006 ni) o nyɛla ŋun tumdi nucheeni tuma nim kamani ; foto nim ŋmahibu,  yiliyiina, sasabira, yɛltɔɣitaɣimalisi sasabira nti pahi sinii ŋmaara,  ka o lala tuma nim ŋɔ che ka o yuli du pam silimiinŋ yuli booni ( U.S. documentary photojournalism) ka di niŋla yuma  1940s malihali ni yuma  1970s ni, ka o tuma maa yɛltɔɣi kpani daa kuli nyɛla din tuhiri fakari, ni silimiingi ni bɔli shɛli ni ( civil rights) la , nti pahi glamour photography. O kookali zaŋchaŋ o ni faa kuli ŋmahiri silimiingi ban daa bi tooi nyaŋdi foto nim la nyɛla bɛ ni mali shɛli n teeri o yɛla pam saha kam.

 

## Exhibitions
*1984: *The Photographs of Gordon Parks*, Minnesota Museum of American Art, Landmark Center Galleries, St. Paul, Minnesota
*1997: *Half past autumn : a retrospective Gordon Parks,* Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. A career retrospective.
*2013: *Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument,* New Orleans Museum of Art.
*2015: *Gordon Parks: Back to Fort Scott,* Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
*2015: *Gordon Parks: Segregation Story,* High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
*2016: *[https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/2405/invisible-man-gordon-parks-and-ralph-ellison-in-harlem Invisible Man: Gordon Parks and Ralph Ellison in Harlem],* Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
*2017: *Gordon Parks: camera is my weapon,* Zachęta Gallery, Warsaw, Poland.
*2018: *Gordon Parks: The Flavio Story,* Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto, Ontario and the Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
*2019: *Gordon Parks: The New Tide, Early Work 1940-1950,* Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas.
*2020: *Gordon Parks X [[Muhammad Ali]], The Image of a Champion, 1966/1970*, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Comprising photographs from two *[[Life (magazine)|Life]]* magazine assignments.
*2020: *A Choice of Weapons Honor and Dignity: The Visions of Gordon Parks and [[Jamel Shabazz]]*, Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, Minnesota.
*2021: "The Impact of Gordon Parks," multiple Parks films (including *Leadbelly*) screened and retrospective panel, Tallgrass Film Festival, Wichita, Kansas

## O tuma nim din laɣim
Work by Parks is held in the following public collections:

* Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
*Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota
*Cleveland Museum of Art
*Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, Minnesota
*Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
**Untitled, Harlem, New York.* Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida

## O kpaŋmaŋ pina
*Parks received more than 20 honorary doctorates in his lifetime.
*1941: Awarded a fellowship for photography from the Rosenwald Fund. The fellowship allowed him to work with the Farm Security Administration.
*1961: Named "Magazine Photographer of the Year" (1960) by the *[[American Society of Magazine Photographers]]*.
*1970: Kansas State University awarded Parks the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.
*1972: The NAACP awarded Parks the Spingarn Medal.
*1974: Kansas State University hosted a week-long "Gordon Parks Festival", November 4–11.
*1976: Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Thiel College, a private, liberal arts college in Greenville, Pennsylvania
*1989: The United States Library of Congress selects *The Learning Tree* as one of the first 25 films chosen for permanent preservation as part of the National Film Registry, deeming it to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in part due to its being the first film directed by an African American to be financed by a major Hollywood studio.
*1990: Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, Missouri School of Journalism, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
*1998: Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Lifetime Achievement
*1999: *Gordon Parks Elementary School*, a nonprofit, K-5 grade public charter school in Kansas City, Missouri, was established to educate the urban-core inhabitants.
*2000: The Congress of Racial Equality Lifetime Achievement Award.
*2000: Library of Congress selects Parks's film *Shaft* for National Film Registry preservation—deeming it to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"
*2000 (April): Library of Congress awards Parks its accolade "Living Legend"—honoring "artists, writers, activists, filmmakers, physicians, entertainers, sports figures and public servants who have made significant contributions to America's diverse cultural, scientific and social heritage"—one 26 writers and artists so honored by the LOC.
*2001: Kitty Carlisle Hart Award, Arts & Business Council, New York
*2003: Royal Photographic Society's Special 150th Anniversary Medal and Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) in recognition of a sustained, significant contribution to the art of photography.
*2002: Jackie Robinson Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.
*2002: Inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum.
*2004: The Art Institute of Boston awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.
*2008: An alternative learning center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, renamed their school Gordon Parks High School after receiving a new building
*2021: The Gordon Parks Award for Black Excellence in Filmmaking, Tallgrass Film Festival, Wichita, Kansas, instituted in Parks' honor.

## O tuma nima
### O ni sabi buku shɛŋa
* *Flash Photography* (1947)
* *Camera Portraits: Techniques and Principles of Documentary Portraiture* (1948) (documentary)
* *[[The Learning Tree]]* (1964) (semi-autobiographical)
* *A Choice of Weapons* (1967) (autobiographical)
* *Born Black* (1970) (compilation of essays and photographs)
* *Flavio* (1978)
* *To Smile in Autumn* (1979) (autobiographical)
** New edition with foreword by Alexs D. Pate. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009
* *Voices in the Mirror*, New York: Doubleday (1990) (autobiographical)
* *The Sun Stalker* (2003) (biography on J. M. W. Turner)
* *A Hungry Heart* (2005) (autobiographical)
* *Gordon Parks: Collected Works* (2012), Göttingen, Germany: Steidl; Slp Edition, 
* *The New Tide: Early Work 1940–1950* (2018), Göttingen, Germany: Steidl

### O Yɛltɔɣitaɣimalisi nima
**Half Past Autumn: A Retrospective*, memoir excerpts by Gordon Parks. Bulfinch Press/Little, Brown (1997), 
**A Star for Noon – An Homage to Women in Images Poetry and Music* Bulfinch. (2000), 
**Eyes With Winged Thoughts* Atria Books (2005) 

### O ni ŋmahi foto shɛŋa
**Arias of Silence* (1994) Bulfinch Press, 
**Glimpses Towards Infinity*. Bulfinch Press (1996), 
**A Harlem Family 1967.* Göttingen, Germany: Steidl (2012),  
**Gordon Parks: a Poet and His Camera by Gordon Park*, Viking Press (1968), 
**The Atmosphere of Crime, 1957.* Göttingen, Germany: Steidl (2020), 

### O sinii nima
* *Flavio* (1964) (short)
* *The World of Piri Thomas* (1968)
* *[[The Learning Tree]]* (1969)
* *[[Shaft (1971 film)|Shaft]]* (1971)
* *[[Shaft's Big Score!]]* (1972)
* *[[The Super Cops]]* (1974)
* *[[Leadbelly (film)|Leadbelly]]* (1976)
* *[[Solomon Northup's Odyssey]]* (1984)
* *Moments Without Proper Names* (1987)
Parks also wrote *Diary of a Harlem Family* (1968) for Joseph Filipowic, and appeared in the 2000 remake of *[[Shaft (2000 film)|Shaft]]* as Lenox Lounge Patron / Mr. P.

### O yila nima
* *Shaft's Big Score* (1972)
* *Moments Without Proper Names* (1987)
* *Martin* (1989) (ballet about Martin Luther King Jr.)

## Publications about Parks
* Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr., Philip Brookman (eds), *Gordon Parks: The New Tide, Early Work 1940–1950*. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and Steidl, 2018,  
*Paul Roth and Amanda Maddox (eds),*Gordon Parks: The Flavio Story*. Gordon Parks Foundation and Steidl, 2017,  
*Michal Raz-Russo and Jean-Christophe Cloutier, et al., *Invisible Man: Gordon Parks and Ralph Ellison*. Art Institute of Chicago and Steidl, 2016, 
*Peter Kunhardt, Jr. and Felix Hoffmann (eds), *I Am You: Selected Works, 1942–1978*. C/O Berlin, Gordon Parks Foundation and Steidl, 2016, 
*Karen Haas, *Gordon Parks: Back to Fort Scott*. Steidl, 2015, 
*Brett Abbott, et al., *Gordon Parks: Segregation Story*. High Museum of Art, Atlanta and Steidl, 2014, 
*Russell Lord, *Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument*. Steidl, 2013, 
*Peter Kunhardt, Jr. and Paul Roth (eds), *Gordon Parks: Collected Works*. Gordon Parks Foundation and Steidl, 2012, 
* Berry, S. L. *Gordon Parks*. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1990, 
* Bush, Martin H. *The Photographs of Gordon Parks*. Wichita, Kansas: Wichita State University, 1983.
* Donloe, Darlene. *Gordon Parks: Photographer, Writer, Composer, Film Maker* [Melrose Square Black American series]. Los Angeles: Melrose Square Publishing Company, 1993, 
*Harnan, Terry, and Russell Hoover. *Gordon Parks: Black Photographer and Film Maker* [Americans All series]. Champaign, Illinois: Garrard Publishing Company, 1972, 
* Parr, Ann, and Gordon Parks. *Gordon Parks: No Excuses*. Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing Company, 2006. 
* Stange, Maren. *Bare Witness: Photographs by Gordon Parks*. Milan: Skira, 2006, 
* Turk, Midge, and Herbert Danska. *Gordon Parks*. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1971, 

## Documentaries on or including Parks

* *My Father, Gordon Parks* (1969) (National Archives item #306.08063A) 
* *Soul in Cinema: Filming Shaft on Location* (1971)
* *Passion and Memory* (1986)
* *[[Malcolm X: Make It Plain]]* (1994)
* *[[All Power to the People]]* (1996)
* *Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks* (2000)
* *A Great Day in Hip-Hop* (2000)
* *[[BaadAsssss Cinema]]* (2002)
* *Soul Man: Isaac Hayes* (2003)
* *[[Unstoppable: Conversation with Melvin Van Peebles, Gordon Parks, and Ossie Davis]]* (2005)
*  *Documenting the Face of America: Roy Stryker & the FSA Photographers* (2008)
* *[[A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks]]* (2021)

## Lihimi n maan nya
* List of photographers of the civil rights movement

## Kundivihira

## Other sources

### Primary source materials
*Gordon Parks Collection . Special Collections, Kansas State University Library.
*Collected Photography, other artwork, and texts. Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art.
*Gordon Parks Papers Exhibit  or Finding Aid. Special Collections and University Archives. Wichita State University Libraries.
* Digital Archive. Gordon Parks Foundation. Currently, the negatives are held at the Special Collections at Purchase College, New York.
*Gordon Parks FSA OWI Photos. Held by the Library of Congress.
*Gordon Parks Oral History from the National Visionary Leadership Project
*Gordon Parks in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN

### Additional article-length works
*Director Guild of America profile 
*International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum profile and biography 

## External links

*
*The Gordon Parks Foundation
*Gordon Parks Collection, photograph and poetry exhibit in Gordon Parks's hometown
*Some of his photography 
*Luminous-Lint page
*Ordway Theater presents Gordon Parks in the VocalEssence Witness series
*C-SPAN interview with Parks, discussing the exhibit "Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks", November 25, 1997
*PBS Newshour, January 6, 1998 
*Further biographical information can be found at the Thomson/Gale 
*Photo District News, Legends Online site for Gordon Parks
*Gordon Parks's oral history video excerpts at the National Visionary Leadership Project
*Gordon Parks Gallery at Metropolitan State University, Saint Paul, Minnesota gallery devoted to preserving the legacy of Gordon Parks
*Art Directors Club biography, portrait and images of work 
* 
*, from Maryland Institute College of Art's Decker Library, Internet Archive
*Gordon Parks interview on In Black America, September 1, 1984, at the American Archive of Public Broadcasting