I dont expect he will be eulogized on many blogs today, but a Giant has passed. I would not have even known, if I did not read Anderson Cooper's incredible piece on his blog.

My first exposure to Gordon Parks, came when I was nine years old, and saw The Learning Tree, The first Major Studio film directed by an African American. Gordon went on to Direct, Shaft and Shaft's big Score,two of the first of the so called Blackploitation movies. But his career as a Director was shortlived. His real mark on the world will come from his body of work as a Photographer.

From Wikipedia:

At the age of 25, Parks purchased a used camera from a pawn shop and became a fashion and personality photographer in Chicago. His first substantial work came when he began work in 1942 as a documentary photographer with the Farm Security Administration, an agency created to call attention to and produce a historical record of social and cultural conditions across the country. At FSA, Parks worked as a trainee under Roy Stryker.

The Washington Post wrote: "During this period, he took what became one of his signature photographs, a picture of Ella Watson, a cleaning woman who worked in the agency's building. He positioned Watson in front of an American flag, a broom in one hand and a mop in the other. He named the picture American Gothic, Washington, D.C. The photograph captured his style of focusing on one particular person to illustrate a broad social theme." [1]

After FSA closed, Parks became the first black photographer in the Office of War Information. Parks went on to work for Vogue magazine and Life Magazine. He stayed with Life from 1948 to 1968, becoming known for his photo essays on the effects of poverty and the civil rights movement. Parks' 1961 photo essay on an impoverished Brazilian boy named Flavio published in Life inspired donations that were credited with saving the boy's life, and to help the family build a house.

Parks was a trailblazer all of his life, and his legacy will be his work... His masterful photography, his films and the doors he opened for all that followed him.

Rest in Peace Maestro...

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