Talk:Gordon Parks

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Contents

[edit] Flipped Photo?

There was the following edit made, "02:42, 8 March 2006 SteveHopson (Edited photo for better use illustrating article...," which consisted of cropping and flipping the photo from left to right. Editor SteveHopson has made many, many excellent contributions to the Gordon Parks article, but I do have to question flipping the photo. For comparison, see history version "02:36, 8 March 2006" by user "Crunch". There is no question that cropping the photo has given greater emphasis and visibility to Gordon Parks. Cropping is a generally accepted journalistic and editorial tool to give a better view of the subject matter.

Photo flipping is primarily used as a stylistic tool to make the subject of the photograph, or in this case, the person face the article. It's use in photojournalism is questionable as it gives a false appearance, i.e. making a right handed person appear to be left handed, etc.. In this case, it makes a large wart on the right side of Parks' nose flip to the left side of his nose in the current "SteveHopson" version. Perhaps, Parks was "dual-warted"? Many times, photo flipping from right to left can be identified in print journalism by small asymmetric objects in the photo, i.e. military uniforms with insignia on the wrong side, men's shirts with a single pocket on the wearer's right side, small written objects, automobile photos, etc.. It would appear to me that the use of photo flipping in an encyclopedia article should not be allowed.--TGC55 13:32, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

  • Point well taken on the photo flipping. I have returned the photo to the original orientation. SteveHopson 15:02, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
  • Thanks, as I still had the article on my computer when you made the orientation change, when I hit the refresh button, Parks just flipped left to right. --TGC55 12:21, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
On 8 March 2006, User:Andibrunt created Image:GordonParks3.jpg. The file history indicates that the photo was cropped and flipped from the original photo Image:Gordon parks.gif. I have asked user Andibrunt on his de talk page to reverse the flipped photo.--TGC55 (talk) 16:54, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
I can hardly remember that I've uploaded that photo, but as both above discussion and the reference to User:SteveHopson suggests, I'd just transferred the cropped and flipped image from en to commons, not knowing how the image was actually modified (see also log)
Sadly I don't have any program to unflip the Image:GordonParks3.jpg, so if anyone else can do this and replace the image at commons with the new version, I'd be very graceful. --Andibrunt (talk) 20:25, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Article

This article is looking really great. Parks was an amazing man and I'm proud to have contributed to this biography. Hopefully, this is a fitting tribute.

Now what I think we need to work on most is improving our documentation. SteveHopson 01:55, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Porno novel?

Back in the days of the late 60s, early 70s, when visual porn of every stripe hadn't yet driven the written stuff off the market, I had a paperback porn novel whose title escapes me that involved, at least in part, photography. I'd never heard of Gordon Parks at the time, but I then ran across a reference somewhere saying that he was the guy who had written this book under a nom de plume. As I recall, the book did have more about character and general novelistic stuff than the average porn book of the epoch. Any confirmation of this? I didn't see an reference to it in any of the obits. Hayford Peirce 18:03, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] F Word?

In the film section, where it talks about his writing for television, the F word show sup in the middle of the word "television". Any idea how to get rid of this?

~~anon~~

[edit] "jesica simpson"

I'm thinking this is not true/relevant.

12.145.108.11 19:54, 31 January 2007 (UTC)anon12.145.108.11 19:54, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Shaft Movie.jpg

Image:Shaft Movie.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 03:47, 6 June 2007 (UTC)