He's been a waiter, a train porter, and a piano player in a brothel. He gained world-wide recognition as an award-winning photographer for LIFE Magazine, the first Afro-American to hold such a staff position. He wrote the acclaimed, best-selling novel "The Learning Tree", and became the first Afro-American to direct a major Hollywood motion picture with this much praised film adaptation. He has written critically acclaimed poetry, composed a piano concerto, two symphonies and motion picture scores.
Within the moments, the scattered fragments, the fleeting images which his cameras and notebooks have recorded, are pictures of a nation, strong and weak, black and white, rich and poor, and the words of a man, the son of a Kansas dirt farmer whose fascinating life journey sought and achieved a unique personal vision. He is Gordon Parks.
