June 30, 1995

Contact: Craig D'Ooge (202) 707-9189

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Media Advisory: Photographer Gordon Parks To Donate Personal Collection to the Library of Congress

Gordon Parks, composer, filmmaker, author and one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth-century, will announce the gift to the Library of Congress of his personal archives of papers, music, photographs, films, recordings, drawings, and other products of his long creative career, at a press conference on Friday, July 7 at 11 a.m. in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress Jefferson Building, 10 First St., SE.

Selections from Mr. Park's archives and selected treasures of the library will be on display. Details of a major retrospective exhibition planned for September 1997 at the Corcoran Gallery of Art also will be announced. Mr. Parks will be available for interviews.

At age 82, with more than 15 books in print, Gordon Parks continues to be prolific in his multifaceted careers in the visual, literary and performing arts fields. His early work was mostly documentary, producing photographs from 1942-1945 for the Farm Security Administration and later the Office of War Information. From 1948 to 1961, he was on assignment for Life magazine. His first feature film, "The Learning Tree," which was released in 1969, was selected for the National Film Registry. He is currently working on a new autobiography and a volume of color abstracts.

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PR 95-095
6/30/95
ISSN 0731-3527