And in the beginning, there was Gordon Parks
Gordon Parks in a frame from a 1968 contact sheet for CBS Reports: The Weapons of Gordon Parks. As with his many other talents, the groundbreaking photographer and filmmaker, Gordon Parks, possessed more cool than he could ever use. The Gordon Parks Foundation via The New York Times.
by Guy Trebay
(NYT NEWS SERVICE)
.- Because this year marks the 50th anniversary of his groundbreaking 1971 film, Shaft; because two fine shows of his pioneering photojournalism are on view at the Jack Shainman galleries in Chelsea; because a suite from his influential 1957 series, The Atmosphere of Crime, is a highlight of In and Around Harlem, on view at the Museum of Modern Art; and because, somehow, despite the long shadow cast by a man widely considered the preeminent Black American photographer of the 20th century, he is too little known, the time seems right to revisit some elements of the remarkable life, style and undimmed releva