Gordon Parks... OK this has to be it.

[robfharris]

NEW YORK - Gordon Parks, who captured the struggles and triumphs of black America as a photographer for Life magazine and then became Hollywood's first major black director with "The Learning Tree" and the hit "Shaft," died Tuesday, a family member said. He was 93.

Parks, who also wrote fiction and was an accomplished composer, died in New York, his nephew, Charles Parks, said in a telephone interview from Lawrence, Kan.

"Nothing came easy," Parks wrote in his autobiography. "I was just born with a need to explore every tool shop of my mind, and with long searching and hard work. I became devoted to my restlessness."

He covered everything from fashion to politics to sports during his 20 years at Life, from 1948 to 1968.

But as a photographer, he was perhaps best known for his gritty photo essays on the grinding effects of poverty in the United States and abroad and on the spirit of the civil rights movement.

"Those special problems spawned by poverty and crime touched me more, and I dug into them with more enthusiasm," he said. "Working at them again revealed the superiority of the camera to explore the dilemmas they posed."

In 1961, his photographs in Life of a poor, ailing Brazilian boy named Flavio da Silva brought donations that saved the boy and purchased a new home for him and his family.

"The Learning Tree" was Parks' first film, in 1969. It was based on his 1963 autobiographical novel of the same name, in which the young hero grapples with fear and racism as well as first love and schoolboy triumphs. Parks wrote the score as well directed.

In 1989, "The Learning Tree" was among the first 25 American movies to be placed on the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. The registry is intended to highlight films of particular cultural, historical or aesthetic importance.

The detective drama "Shaft," which came out in 1971 and starred Richard Roundtree, was a major hit and spawned a series of black-oriented films. Parks himself directed a sequel, "Shaft's Big Score," in 1972.

He also published books of poetry and wrote musical compositions including "Martin," a ballet about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Parks was born Nov. 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, Kan., the youngest of 15 children. In his 1990 autobiography, "Voices in the Mirror," he remembered it as a world of racism and poverty, but also a world where his parents gave their children love, discipline and religious faith.

He went through a series of jobs as a teen and young man, including piano player and railroad dining car waiter. The breakthrough came when he was about 25, when he bought a used camera in a pawn shop for $7.50. He became a freelance fashion photographer, went on to Vogue magazine and then to Life in 1948.

"Reflecting now, I realize that, even within the limits of my childhood vision, I was on a search for pride, meanwhile taking measurable glimpses of how certain blacks, who were fed up with racism, rebelled against it," he wrote.

When he accepted an award from Wichita State University in May 1991, he said it was "another step forward in my making peace with Kansas and Kansas making peace with me."

"I dream terrible dreams, terribly violent dreams," he said. "The doctors say it's because I suppressed so much anger and hatred from my youth. I bottled it up and used it constructively."

In his autobiography, he recalled that being Life's only black photographer put him in a peculiar position when he set out to cover the civil rights movement.

"Life magazine was eager to penetrate their ranks for stories, but the black movement thought of Life as just another white establishment out of tune with their cause," he wrote. He said his aim was to become "an objective reporter, but one with a subjective heart."

The story of young Flavio prompted Life readers to send in $30,000, enabling his family to build a home, and Flavio received treatment for his asthma in an American clinic. By the 1970s, he had a family and a job as a security guard, but more recently the home built in 1961 has become overcrowded and run-down.

Still, Flavio stayed in touch with Parks off and on, and in 1997 Parks said, "If I saw him tomorrow in the same conditions, I would do the whole thing over again."

In addition to novels, poetry and his autobiographical writings, Parks' writing credits included nonfiction such as "Camera Portraits: Techniques and Principles of Documentary Portraiture," 1948, and a 1971 book of essays called "Born Black."

His other film credits included "The Super Cops," 1974; "Aaron Loves Angela," 1975; and "Leadbelly," 1976.

Recalling the making of "The Learning Tree," he wrote: "A lot of people of all colors were anxious about the breakthrough, and I was anxious to make the most of it. The wait had been far too long. Just remembering that no black had been given a chance to direct a motion picture in Hollywood since it was established kept me going."

Last month, health concerns had kept Parks from accepting the William Allen White Foundation National Citation in Kansas, but he said in a taped presentation that he still considered the state his home and wanted to be buried in Fort Scott.

Two years ago, Fort Scott Community College established the Gordon Parks Center for Culture and Diversity.

Jill Warford, its executive director, said Tuesday that Parks "had a very rough start in life and he overcame so much, but was such a good person and kind person that he never let the bad things that happened to him make him bitter."

___

[bingolong]

robfharris,
I was hoping by the title it would have been something else....The way things are going in the past few months i wonder if God is trying to tell us something.....

[tamra]

robfharris,

dejavu we had just started a thread earlier about him.

https://richardpryor.com/forums/msgs.cf ... 7&forum=15 - Gordon Parks'

bingo did say it happens in threes.

but this is a hard one. I hope his work and accomplishments are never overlooked. for every struggle he was right there.

[bingolong]

tamra,
Damn now it seem like its happening in fours...Kirby Puckett too!!

What is God really trying to let us know?

[JTF]

bingolong,

Kirby counts in the three. People who are famous only through marriage don't truly count toward the three...

Sorry, Mrs. Superman...

[tamra]

bingolong,

that's what I'm saying and it's making me a little scared. again I know Parks was 93. but come on... let us keep him a little longer.

and it's good people doing things. like when will we hear about a dictator (insert names here) dying, or 3 of them including his flunkies dying at once!

but JTF,

Dana Reeve was doing the dayum thang w/making things a whole lot better for disabled persons. so she was breaking down doors and serving a purpose for many.

I guess I will have to send God an email: look let's make a deal... we'll let you have (insert names here) if you just keep (insert names here) for X-amount of time. never negotiated w/the G man, but wish me luck!

[dougdigitalpro]

bingolong,
He's trying to say: I'm not sending anymore great ones down. You guys are on your own!
There's no one to carry on the torches anymore. So, I guess it will slowly go out.
Speaking of which, I checked out a concert film by Steve Harvey that is in limited release and I have to say it was OK, not great, but Ok. It defintely wasn't on the level of a Richard Pryor film and that made me sad because I like Steve Harvey and I wanted it to be great. Watching it, I couldn't help but notice that his performance is kinda representative of everything that is wrong with stand up comedy today.
When Richard performed, it was him, the mike and the stage. No fancy backdrops, no special lighting effects, no flashy costumes (although Sunset strip was pushing it lol). None of that, just Rich and his material. He didn't need nothing else but a stool and a glass of water. And those two simple props were everything to his performance. Steve's gimmick on this outing was he wasn't cursing anymore, which was cool. That didn't bother me and I commend him for trying it. But the material itself seemed to lack substance. He would get going on a story and then he would abandon it just when it got good. This film wasn't originally designed for the big screen. It was an afterthought and it shows. Even when it's just you on stage telling jokes, you still have to do a whole lot of planning. This is why Mr. P's shows were so flawless and on point. Also, his ego was in check. Rich showed more humility and vunerability on stage than anything else, which made his work so brilliant. Steve's ego tends to spin out of control sometimes and he becomes confrontational with the audience at points instead of making them feel at home. Steve's like the old man with the nice house who's screaming at you to get off his lawn but you stand there and laugh at him because he looks so crazy saying it. Mr. P was just Mudbone.
An old man with a good story. Plain and simple. So I say all that to say this....

There are NO replacements!