BHS Day 5: Gordon Parks

Hi! Each Tuesday throughout the month will be dedicated to a pioneer in the worlds of art and fashion. Art itself is so subjective and vague that it encompasses a ton of different professions, but I try to bring as much variety to the category as I can. This year we're kicking things off with an artist whose work is iconic to me, but for whatever reason I never featured him. I always had a complete lineup and couldn't take anyone out, so I'd roll it over to the following year, where it would inevitably happen again. I was determined to finally get to him this year. Let's get to our entrant!

Source

Name: Gordon Parks, 1912(or 13) - 2006

Profession: Photographer/photojournalist, film director, musician and writer

Why is the Spotlight on him today? For his iconic photographs helping to capture the Black experience in America during the civil rights movement and beyond

Notables:
--Was honored with the "Living Legend" award by the Library of Congress, placing him in an elite crowd with only 26 other individuals to be honored
--Is credited as having co-created the 'Blaxploitation' genre of film alongside Melvin Van Peebles --Was the first Black photographer to work at Life Magazine
--Was inducted into the Black Filmmakers' Hall of Fame
--Was the first Black photographer to work at Vogue, where he developed a distinctive style of showing models in motion
--Was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1988
--Directed the film 'Shaft' in the 1970s and was given a small cameo in the '90s remake of the same name
--Was the first Black filmmaker to write and direct a film for Hollywood, which he based off of his bestselling novel
--Was inducted in the NAACP Hall of Fame
--Showed both the highs and lows of life in his photography, from the racism and poverty affecting Blacks in certain areas to more glamorous, styled photos of Black subjects 
--Was completely self-taught and earned his way to a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship through his photographs of society women, which then parlayed into a job for the now-defunct Farm Security Administration from his photographs of the local Black experience
--Was the most recognized Black photojournalist in federal service during his heyday
--Was able to photograph an all-black military unit, the 332nd Fighter Group, shortly before their deployment while working as a correspondent for the Office of War Information
--Was awarded over 50 honorary doctorates for his extensive work
--Was integral to showing the rest of the country what the Black experience at the height of racism was really like
--Was posthumously awarded with an exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 2015
--Was once named Photographer of the Year by the American Society of Magazine Photographers
--Created and published over 15 books in an array of genres, from fiction to poetry to instructionals on photography basics
--Co-founded Black publication mainstay Essence Magazine
--Performed a number of orchestral works and six film scores
--Was personally asked by Malcolm X to be the godfather of his daughter Qubilah
--Was posthumously given an exhibit in his name called Gordon Parks: The New Tide, Early Work 1940-1950 at the National Gallery in time with the release of a book with an identical title, in which Gordon Parks's early work, some of which was unpublished, was revealed (the exhibit is open until the 18th of this month, if you're in the DC area)
--Was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame
--Is still posthumously given exhibits around the country; at least 40 have been completed over the last year
--Was able to have his work permanently preserved in a foundation that bears his name in an effort to continue spreading Gordon's goal of helping with "the common search for a better life and a better world" through his work

Further reading links: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4


Quote of the Day: 
"I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera."
--Gordon Parks