Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks, the filmmaker, poet, musician and novelist who died March 7, was the first black American photojournalist for Life magazine. He leaves behind classic images like this shot circa 1950 of Maxine Contesse Alain de la Falaise. His work led him to London and Paris to take pictures of models in evening gowns, but he also covered sports, civil rights and poverty.

In his photographs Gordon Parks chronicled the hardship of the nation's poorest people during the civil rights movement and also produced portraits of leading people of the time, including jazz great Duke Ellington in this classic photo, "Duke Ellington Listening to Playback," snapped in 1960.

This iconic image of a sweat-soaked Muhammad Ali was shot by Gordon Parks in Miami, Florida, in 1966 after the outspoken boxing champ finished sparring with a partner in the ring. At the time, Ali was training for a bout with British boxer Henry Cooper.

Gordon Parks mans the camera with his son Gordon Parks Jr. (left) in 1968, while filming his first film "The Learning Tree." With this film, based on his 1963 autobiographical novel, Parks became the first African-American to write, direct, and score a Hollywood picture. In 1971, Parks directed "Shaft," which many cite as the first of the so-called "blaxploitation" films.

Gordon Parks steps out from behind the camera to pose for this 1979 photo taken near Manhattan, Kansas. The youngest of 15 children, Parks was born into poverty in 1912 in the segregated town of Fort Scott, Kansas. The high-school drop-out bought his first camera for $7.50 at a pawnshop in the late 1930s.

Gordon Parks with director Spike Lee and Michele Byrd, the executive director of the Independent Feature Project, at The Gordon Parks Independent Film Awards for African American Filmmakers in New York City on Oct. 3, 2001.

On Nov. 20, 2002, Gordon Parks emotes for photographers in Harlem after participating in a shoot with dozens of other prominent African-American photographers.

Gordon Parks with actor Ossie Davis (left), actor Melvin Van Peebles, and his son, actor Mario Van Peebles (far right), at a private screening of "Baadasssss" March 24, 2004. Melvin Van Peebles wrote, directed, and starred in the 1971 hit movie "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song."

Actor Danny Glover and Gordon Parks attend a reception on Sept. 23, 2004, before the premiere of "Brother to Brother," a film that explored the Harlem Renaissance through the eyes of a gay artist.

David Parks touches the casket of his father, Gordon Parks, after speaking before mourners at New York's Riverside Church March 14, 2006. Some 2,000 people attended the service for the famed photographer and filmmaker.

During the funeral service for her father Gordon Parks, Toni Parks, who is also a photographer, holds a rose at New York's Riverside Church March 14, 2006. Toni's older brother Gordon Parks Jr., a movie director who directed 1972's "Superfly," died in a plane crash in Africa in 1979. His ashes will be buried with his father in Fort Scott, Kansas.

Pallbearers carry the casket of Gordon Parks at his funeral March 14, 2006. Mourners from all walks of life paid tribute, including former New York City Mayor David Dinkins, fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt, and director John Singleton, who remade Parks' film "Shaft" in 2000. Parks will be laid to rest in Fort Scott's Evergreen Cemetery, where his parents and several of his 14 older siblings are also buried.