Photographer, filmmaker Gordon Parks dies

The story of young Flavio prompted Life readers to send in $30,000, enabling his family to build a home, and Flavio received treatment for his asthma in an American clinic. By the 1970s, he had a family and a job as a security guard, but more recently the home built in 1961 has become overcrowded and run-down.

Still, Flavio stayed in touch with Parks off and on, and in 1997 Parks said, “If I saw him tomorrow in the same conditions, I would do the whole thing over again.”

Life’s managing editor, Bill Shapiro, said in a statement Tuesday that it had “lost one of its dearest members.”

“Gordon was one of the magazine’s most accomplished shooters and one of the very greatest American photographers of the 20th century,” the statement said. “He moved as easily among the glamorous figures of Hollywood and Paris as he did among the poor in Brazil and the powerful in Washington.”

In addition to novels, poetry and his autobiographical writings, Parks’ writing credits included nonfiction such as “Camera Portraits: Techniques and Principles of Documentary Portraiture,” 1948, and a 1971 book of essays called “Born Black.”

His other film credits included “The Super Cops,” 1974; “Leadbelly,” 1976; and “Solomon Northup’s Odyssey,” a TV film from 1984.

Recalling the making of “The Learning Tree,” he wrote: “A lot of people of all colors were anxious about the breakthrough, and I was anxious to make the most of it. The wait had been far too long. Just remembering that no black had been given a chance to direct a motion picture in Hollywood since it was established kept me going.”

Last month, health concerns had kept Parks from accepting the William Allen White Foundation National Citation in Kansas, but he said in a taped presentation that he still considered the state his home and wanted to be buried in Fort Scott.

Two years ago, Fort Scott Community College established the Gordon Parks Center for Culture and Diversity.

Jill Warford, its executive director, said Tuesday that Parks “had a very rough start in life and he overcame so much, but was such a good person and kind person that he never let the bad things that happened to him make him bitter.”

Parks is survived by a son and two daughters, Young said. Funeral arrangements were pending, she said.

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