‘He was making history, not copying it’: the greatest Gordon Parks photographs

As a new exhibition celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Gordon Parks Foundation, those who knew him discuss his most powerful images Gordon Parks was not only a renowned photographer but also a poet, composer, director and mentor to so many, past and present, a Renaissance man whose talent spanned disciplines.

Born in Fort Scott, Kansas, Parks used his craft to illuminate the lives, worlds and humanity of people. He created the Gordon Parks Foundation with Life magazine editor Philip B Kunhardt Jr in 2006 to promote and support artistic and educational initiatives that…