MONTGOMERY – Troy University’s Rosa Parks Museum opened a new exhibit     April 2, entitled “Gordon Parks: Crossroads.” The exhibit will run through July 30.

The 50-photograph retrospective collection celebrates the life of Gordon Parks, who became Life magazine’s first black staff photographer in 1949.

Also featured in the exhibit will be the film “Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks” that will show in the Museum’s auditorium at 10:30 a.m. on April 14.
The exhibit is presented by Art2Art, in collaboration with the Gordon Parks Foundation and the Southern Poverty Law Center, and provides a glimpse into the life of one of America’s most accomplished 20th century artists. Photographer, poet, novelist, musician and composer, Parks spent a lifetime shattering barriers in his pursuit of truth, beauty, social justice and artistic expression.

Born in 1912, the youngest of 15 children of Kansas tenant farmers, Parks began his musical career at 15 when he became a brothel piano player and a big-band singer. Eventually landing in Paris, where he would compose his first piano concerto. In 1938, Parks purchased his first camera in a pawn shop and just months later found his portraits of black women exhibited in the windows of the Eastman Kodak store in Minneapolis, Minn.

His first professional photographing job would come under the auspices of the Farm Security Administration. While at FSA, he created the famed “American Gothic” photograph. While shooting documentaries for FSA, Parks also launched into glamour and beauty photography, completing projects for Vogue and Glamour magazines. In 1949, he joined the staff of Life magazine, where he stayed for some 25 years. He authored four volumes of poetry, and, in 1968, became the first black to write, produce, direct and score a major motion picture, “The Learning Tree.” He co-founded Essence magazine and went on to direct many motion pictures, including MGM’s “Shaft.” He also scored and directed “Martin,” a ballet based on the life of    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Exhibition Hall is open from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday – Friday and 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. on Saturday. This event is free and open to the public. 

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