Gordon Parks (ICON) at 92! It doesn't get any better than this. Read on

[undergroundrailroad]

A view through the long lens

Gordon Parks, at 92, works to live and lives to keep on doing the work he loves

BY MARTIN C. EVANS
STAFF WRITER

March 29, 2005

The flotsam of a life lived past 90 cluttered the wooden table in photographer Gordon Parks' mid-Manhattan living room overlooking the East River - proofs for a new collection of his poems, a vintage Nikon, pastel crayons he snatched at while working on a drawing.

Nearby, a book cracked to his 1949 photograph of a young Ingrid Bergman showed the meteoric success of his early career. Near that, multicolored pills, sorted by the days of the week, hinted at his advancing years.

Parks, 92, who is to photojournalism what Jackie Robinson was to baseball, is in a self-described race against time, determined to lengthen a creative life that had already seen him shoot 15 covers for Life magazine, direct the groundbreaking movie "Shaft," co-found Essence Magazine, write more than a dozen books and influence such prominent photojournalists as former Ebony magazine photographer Moneta Sleet Jr. and Smithsonian curator Deborah Willis.

He's still in the picture

[SemperEadem]

1. I remember back when I was in college

and I had to write a paper on an American photographer in my Photography class, I chose Gordon Parks... I fell in love with his photography (I know which pic of Ingrid Bergman the book is opened to--standing under an umbrella with Roberto Rossellini--it's haunting and beautiful). He is an American treasure.

I got an A+ on the paper.

[undergroundrailroad]

2. A very good memory and thanks for sharing it.

I give you an A+ for a great post.

Mina :hi:

[Karenina]

3. Me too!!!

:hi: Thanks for that!

[auburngrad82]

4. I love Gordon Parks. He inspires me as a photographer.

His autobiography is a very good book. I also enjoyed The Learning Tree (is that the right title?), the book that he wrote about a young boy growing up in Kansas.

[undergroundrailroad]

5. That was a great piece of ART. I have always loved the book and the

movie. It is not yet out on DVD. I asked to be notified when it's available via Amazon.com.

Thanks auburngrad82.

Undergroundrailroad :hi: