Parks photo contest to go forward

FORT SCOTT, Kan. -- A longstanding photography contest will take place this year after organizers discussed canceling the event earlier this summer.

The 23rd Annual Gordon Parks International Photography Contest, organized by the Gordon Parks Museum and Center for Culture and Diversity at Fort Scott Community College, will go on after the deadline for accepting entries, originally June 20, was extended to late July. Organizers began accepting entries this past spring, Gordon Parks Museum Director Jill Warford said.

"Thirty (entries) came in by that first deadline," she said. "We weren't sure if we would go ahead with it or not. It just wasn't enough (entries) to consider it a viable contest."

Warford said extending the deadline allowed more time to publicize the event.

"We got more people e-mailed and information sent out to more people," she said. "It's the 23rd year, we didn't want to end it. I'm glad we got the word out."

A total of 73 entries were received, down from last year's event which included about 90 entries. Many of the entries were submitted by new photographers, Warford said.

Held annually since 1989, the contest has attracted photographers both locally and from around the world. The annual competition is a tribute to Parks, a Fort Scott native, and is open to both amateur and professional photographers. Photos typically vary in quality and theme, but should follow themes that Parks emphasized in his work. The theme of this year's contest is based on a quote by Parks, who said, "Freedom was the theme of all my work. Not allowing anyone to set boundaries, cutting loose the imagination and then making the new horizons."

Warford said she had hoped to receive more entries this year from Kansas and other states in the Midwest as there are not typically many entries from those areas each year, however, only a handful of entries from other towns in the region were received.

"There's one from Pittsburg," she said. "I got a few more from the area but not as many as I had hoped."

Other entries came in from other parts of the country and locations all over the world, including Australia and Bangladesh, New York, Ohio, Florida and Texas, Warford said.

Many of the photos received depict landscapes and there are also several portraits.

"There are a lot of pictures of social issues," Warford said.

Entries were received from photographers at large newspapers across the U.S. and several amateur photographers. Many of those entrants have won prizes from participating in the contest in past years.

Entries received are judged by Life magazine Photo Editor Barbara Baker Burrows and her staff. Of the 73 total entries, judges will select a group of 15-18 finalists that are then judged by Burrows and Parks' daughter, Toni Parks, during the annual Gordon Parks Celebration scheduled for Oct. 7-8.

A first-place winner will receive a $500 prize, second place will receive $350, and $200 will be awarded to a third place winner. Up to three Honorable Mention winners will each receive $50.

Parks, who died in 2006, was a photographer for Life magazine and the first African-American to break the color barrier at the magazine. He worked for Life for more than 30 years and became famous for his photo essays on social issues, though he started his career as a fashion photographer.

The contest was conceived more than 20 years ago by retired FSCC instructor John Bennett and is now traditionally part of the annual four-day celebration that honors Parks, a famed photographer, author, filmmaker, artist and musician who grew up in Fort Scott.