Celebrating 100 Years of Gordon Parks
June 5, 2012 The Museum of Modern Art, New York CityOn Tuesday, June 5, 2012 The Gordon Parks Foundation will celebrate "100 Years of Gordon" at The Museum of Modern Art. Honorees are singer/songwriter Alicia Keys, photographer Annie Leibovitz and HBO's Co-Present Richard Plepler. Anderson Cooper will host the evening and Karl Lagerfeld and publisher Gerhard Steidl are our Co-Chairs. 2012 marks a milestone for us and the Foundation will feature an array of events which include a major museum exhibition, the publication of a four-volume box set of his photographs, gallery exhibitions and film screenings.
Gerhard Steidl to publish a Retrospective Survey on Gordon Parks
Spring 2012The Gordon Parks Foundation will produce its first major publication in 2012 to celebrate Parks' Centennial. The Foundation is working with famed book publisher Gerhard Steidl to produce a series of four books that span Parks' photographic career. The book begins in 1942 with the first professional position Parks held at the Farm Security Administration under the guidance of the program’s director, Roy Stryker. The iconic photograph of Ella Watson from this period, known as “American Gothic,” remains one of Parks’ most important and recognizable images. Aiming to expose intolerance and to fight social injustice, Parks worked for the U.S. Office of War Information and Standard Oil of New Jersey before becoming the first African American photographer for LIFE magazine in 1948. Over the course of more than two decades, Parks produced photo-essays on an exceptionally broad range of topics, including gang wars in Harlem, fashion in Paris, and segregation in the American South, before embarking on his successful career as film director. He was also an accomplished portraitist, capturing now-famous images of Ingrid Bergman, Alberto Giacometti, Gloria Vanderbilt, Duke Ellington, Malcom X, and Muhammad Ali.
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Celebrating Creativity
June 1, 2011The third Gordon Parks Awards Dinner honored Arianna Huffington, Karl Lagerfeld, Spike Lee, Sir Ken Robinson and Stephanie Winston Wolkoff. Presenters includedTim Armstrong, Blue Man Group, Richard Plepler, Emily Rafferty and Ingrid Sischy,. Iman served as Mistress of Ceremonies. The Foundation also launched the HBO/ Gordon Parks Film Scholarship which was awarded to Alma Rosario, a student at the Ghetto Film School.
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HBO/Gordon Parks Foundation Film Scholarship Awarded to Alma Rosario at the Ghetto Film School
Spring 2011This scholarship recognizes new talent that is coming out of the Ghetto Film School in the Bronx, New York where the mission is to educate, develop and celebrate the next generation of great American storytellers.
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Junior Cocktails and Silent Auction
Sotheby's New York, Spring 2010The Gordon Parks Junior Committee hosted cocktails and a silent auction at Sotheby's to benefit The Gordon Parks Foundation's exhibition fund. The event was attended by more than 250 guests.
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Millbrook School Students Study Gordon Parks
Fall 2010 - Spring 2011Last spring as students registered for their upcoming courses, they read an unfamiliar title being offered by the art history department. It was simply called 'Gordon Parks.' Who was Gordon Parks? And why was an entire course devoted to learning about a man most had never heard of before? The objective was to dig beneath the surface and to understand Gordon Parks the artist and his place in twentieth century photography, film-making and writing. But it was also a course that would take a journey through Parks' personal story of a poor black man living in a white world - a world filled with bigotry and hatred, but a world in which Parks would ultimately rise to the top by allowing his creativity and imagination to overcome adversity.
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The Archive Doors Have Opened!
Summer 2009The summer of 2009 was spent renovating a 2,000 square foot space at Purchase College, part of the SUNY system in Purchase, New York. We have now moved in all of our photography collections and have ample space to archive and work with the images. It is a secure, climate controlled archive and we are surrounded by students and faculty eager to help with our ongoing work and already proposing projects of their own.
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The Nikon/Gordon Parks Scholarship Awarded to Chiara Marinai at SUNY Purchase
Summer 2009Chiara Marinai is the first recipient of the Nikon/Gordon Parks Scholarship. She is a BFA Photography degree candidate in the School of Art+Design. The grant helps cover the tuition for a student at Purchase College/SUNY in the School of Art and Design. “What an incredible man,” sais Chiara about Gordon Parks. “The scholarship has motivated me to work harder on what I love most: photography.” Chiara has also volunteered to work as an intern at the foundation. She was the recipient of the scholarship the following year. In 2011, the scholarship was awarded to Rebecca Iasillo, a senior at Purchase College. Her photographic work is a critique of the suburban culture.
Celebrating Fashion
June 2, 2009 New York CityThe Gordon Parks Foundation Award is given to outstanding individuals whose contributions to the arts reflect four principles that Gordon demonstrated throughout his life: courage, vision, compassion and dignity. In 2009 the theme was fashion since Gordon began his career as a fashion photographer. The honorees included model and activist Liya Kebede, activist and philanthropist Russell Simmons, designer Isabel Toledo, and photographer/filmmaker Bruce Weber. Bethann Hardison, Richard Plepler, Ruben Toledo and Anna Wintour served as presenters. André Leon Tally was the Master of Ceremonies. The Foundation also launched the Nikon/Gordon Parks photography scholarship which was awarded to Chiara Marinai, a student at Purchase College SUNY.
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Gordon Parks: Portraits
Hermès Gallery May 20 - June 30, 2009 New York CityFor six weeks an exhibit of famous and not-so-famous portraits taken by Gordon Parks was open to the public at The Gallery at Hermès in New York City. More than 300 guests attended the opening. Although Parks had never exhibited these images as a group during his lifetime, he once said: “The moments I spent making these portraits always flow back with the warmest of memories. They are people who I have admired and felt at ease with. And in most cases, I attempted to intertwine their personalities and their professions.”
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Celebrating the Life and Work of Gordon Parks
June 18, 2007 New York CityThe Gordon Parks Foundation hosted its inaugural Awards Dinner and honored Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Sheila Nevins and Gloria Vanderbilt. Additional speakers included Richard D. Parsons, Diane von Furstenberg and Ingrid Saunders Jones. Anderson Cooper served as the Master of Ceremonies.
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