Gordon Parks 2006 Deaths

Gordon Parks

photographer and filmmaker who was a premier fashion photographer in the 1940s, working for Vogue and Glamour. Born into poverty, he became the first African American to work as a photographer for the Farm Security Administration, where he developed his powerful documentary style that depicted the marginal existences of African Americans. In 1948, he became Life magazine's first African American photographer. Parks directed eight films, including Shaft.