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Photographs and Memories: On Gordon Parks

Image via "Gordon Parks and the Emergence of Humanity in Emerging Man" at the Singulart Magazine website
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"Homeward to the Prairie I Come: Gordon Parks Photographs from the Beach Museum of Art" is on view at Tulsa's Philbrook Museum of Art through June 19th; this striking exhibit features 70+ works, including iconic photo-journalism, portraits, and experimental photography. Recently, MC host Jeff Martin had the opportunity to chat with one of Parks's good friends, the fellow photographer Fred Sweets. An award-winning photographer and photo editor who worked over the years at The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Washington Post, and the Associated Press, Sweets was greatly inspired by the photography of Gordon Parks (as were so many others). On this episode, we hear Sweets reflecting on his life and work with the camera -- as well as that of the legendary Gordon Parks.

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  • Gordon Parks is the legendary African-American photographer known for documenting the lives of the poor, and for being the first black staff photographer for Life magazine. Jon Kalish reports that last weekend, Parks celebrated his 90th birthday in New York City with a group of African-American photographers from around the country.
  • Parks, who died in 2006, worked for Life magazine and later became the first Black director of a Hollywood film. He's the subject of the documentary, A Choice of Weapons. Originally broadcast in 1990.
  • Photographer Adger Cowans, who covered everything from the Civil Rights Movement to Hollywood, has a new exhibit at age 85 in Fairfield, Conn.
  • Filmmaker and photographer Gordon Parks has died. He was 93. Parks captured black America as a photographer for Life magazine, and then became Hollywood's first major black director with the hit Shaft. He also wrote fiction and was an accomplished composer.