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The Photography of Gordon Parks

Photographer, filmmaker, writer, and composer Gordon Parks died on Tuesday in New York at the age of 93. At the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, an exhibit of his photographs went on display last month. By Laura Spencer

Kansas City, MO – Photographer and filmmaker Gordon Parks died in New York this week at the age of 93. Parks was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, the youngest of 15 children. He joined Life magazine in the 40s, as the publication?s first African-American photographer, and worked there for 20 years, creating photo essays on the impact of poverty and the civil rights movement. Parks was also a musician, novelist, poet, and film director. Of all his films, he?s probably best remembered for 1969?s The Learning Tree, adapted from his autobiographical novel, and 1971?s Shaft.

At the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, an exhibit of photographs by Gordon Parks went on display last month. KCUR?s Laura Spencer talked to the museum?s Brett Knappe who organized the exhibit called Gordon Parks At Home and Abroad: A Small Selection, which remains on display through March 19.

Note: A funeral is planned for Tuesday, March 14, in New York. Services will also be held Thursday, March 14 for Parks in his hometown of Fort Scott, Kansas at 3 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 308 S. Crawford.

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