A nice little bit of recognition recently when one of my images from South Korea was awarded “Honorable Mention” (i.e. 4th!) in the “26th Annual Gordon Parks International Photography Awards”. The awards celebrate the work of the eminent coloured US photographer Gordon Parks who not only produced brilliant photo essays as a staffer for ‘Life Magazine’ but also directed the 1971 movie ‘Shaft’. (Who doesn’t remember Isaac Hayes great ‘Theme from Shaft’ which won an ‘Academy Award’.)
Gordon Parks died in 2006 aged 93 but the Gordon Parks Center continue to promote his work, make it available to the public through exhibitions, books etc and support artistic and educational activities that advance his ideal of “the common search for a better life and a better world.”
The theme for this years awards and exhibition was “The Face of Poverty” … a subject covered prominently by Gordon Parks own work. Amongst the winners and finalists were entries from the US, Bangladesh, Japan … and Australia (me!). My image (below) was made in Seoul South Korea whilst documenting the many homeless individuals that exist around the main railway station and at the time facing eviction by National rail network Korail. I made the pic as s small boy stopped to stare at a homeless man preparing his cardboard box bed for a nights sleep in a station underpass.
Details of all the prize winners can be found at http://www.gordonparkscenter.org/photocontest/items/WinnersFinalists%202014.pdf
Image © Brian Cassey
