Gordon Parks & David Finn - Air date: 06-09-03

Gordon Roger Alexander Buchannan Parks (November 30, 1912 -- March 7, 2006) was a groundbreaking African-American photographer, musician, poet, novelist, journalist, activist and film director. He is best remembered for his photo essays for Life magazine and as the director of the 1971 film Shaft. .......Parks is remembered for his activism, filmmaking, photography, and writings. He was the first African American to work at Life magazine, and the first to write, direct, and score a Hollywood film.
Parks was a co-founder of Essence magazine and one of the early contributors to the blaxploitation genre. In 1984 Parks received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Thiel College, a private, liberal arts college in Greenville, Pennsylvania. In 1989, the United States Library of Congress deemed The Learning Tree "culturally significant" due to its being the first major studio feature film directed by an African-American. Thus, the film was preserved in the United States National Film Registry. In 1995, Parks announced that he will donate his papers and entire artistic collection to the Library of Congress. One year later, "The Gordon Parks Collection" was currated. In 1997, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. mounted a career retrospective on Parks, Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks. In 2000, the Library of Congress deemed Shaft to be "culturally significant", selecting it for NFR preservation as well.Parks himself said that freedom was the theme of all of his work, Not allowing anyone to set boundaries, cutting loose the imagination and then making the new horizons.[1]

The Sun Stalker (2003) (biography on J.M.W. Turner) Recently published Book primarily under discussion in the 2003 "Conversation".
David Finn. Mr. Finn has had an outstanding career spanning more than fifty years as a key executive in the field of public relations and as a widely published author. As co-founder and CEO of Ruder Finn, Inc., one of the largest independent public relations firms in the world, he has been a leader in exploring the ethical and philosophical dimen-sions of public relations as well as in creating innovative approaches that have enhanced its effectiveness and broadened its contributions. He is also an accomplished photographer of sculpture, a painter and a writer on art, with over 70 books to his credit. Clients of Ruder Finn have included many Fortune 500 corporations as well as privately-held companies, trade associations, foreign governments and agencies, colleges and universities and not-for-profit organizations.
Mr. Finn is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was appointed by President Clinton as a member of the Advisory Council for the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Sun
• Stalker
• Life
• Magazine
• Shaft
• Poet
• J.M.W.
• Turner
• Musician
• Photographer
• MNNnyc

[Streamline09]

Thanks for posting this interview. The interviewer seems nervous or intimidated while attempting to lead the "dance" with Mr. Parks. That's probably why he talks so much, sometimes not letting Parks finish an idea he starts. Nevertheless, what Mr. Parks shares is important, so I'm glad the effort was made.

[assinthebox]

the interviewers are awful. baldie keeps on yacking during the whole answers the honorable Mr. Parks gives. Gordon rocks!!!!

[Louie9105]

Sehr gutes Musikvideo aber hört doch alle bitte auf eure wertvolle Tageszeit mit diesen unsinnigen Videos zu verschwenden! Geht lieber auf die Webseite mck-team *com (den punkt vor com richtig einsetzen) (bekannt aus dem TV). Auf der Seite findet ihr eine idiotensichere System Methode wie man schnell viel viel Geld im Netz dazuverdienen kann. Drauf schauen lohnt sich wirklich für jeden von euch! Schwöre euch, dass es nichts kostet <3

[BobbyPuun]

What a bunch of morons the "interviewers" are. They are the 2 stooges. GP rocks though: dignified as always.

[Cybelephotography]

thanks for sharing this jewel

[klakkin]

52 honorary doctorate degrees !?! WOW,..hehee 52 degrees for every week of the year!! D'man !

[klakkin]

i enjoyed watching this ...listening to Mr. Parks speak is inspiring ! Shaft Rules! Gordon Parks, Musician, Writer, Painter, Film Director , Photographer..is there anything this guy didn't do ? i liked the learning tree story! all these stories in his life!!

[klakkin]

wow ,..this made me think..maybe that in todays society people are forgetting to place the elders in the center and learn from the stories that they have to tell, instead we teach that when we get old we are useless and when we get old we should be in a nursing home and forgotten,..