Eugene Richards
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Euguene Richards (born 1944, Dorchester, Massachusetts) is a noted American documentary photographer.
During the 1960s Richards was a civil rights activist and VISTA volunteer. After receiving a BA in English from Northeastern University his graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were supervised by photographer Minor White.
Richards' published photographs are mostly intended as a means of raising social awareness, have been characterized as "highly personal" and are both exhibited and published in a series of books. The first book was Few Comforts or Surprises (1973), a depiction of rural poverty in Arkansas; but it was his second book, the self-published Dorchester Days (1978), a "homecoming" to Dorchester, Massachusetts, where Richards had grown up, that won most attention. It is "an angry, bitter book", both political and personal.[1] Gerry Badger writes that "[Richards's] involvement with the people he is photographing is total, and he is one of the best of photojournalists in getting that across, often helped by his own prose".[1]
Richards has been a member of Magnum Photos and is a member of VII. He lives in New York.[2]
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[edit] Books of Richards's work
- Few Comforts or Surprises: The Arkansas Delta. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1973. ISBN 0262180626.
- Dorchester Days. Wollaston, Mass.: Many Voices Press, 1978. 2nd ed. (revised and expanded). London: Phaidon, 2000. ISBN 0-7148-4001-7.
- With Dorothea Lynch. 50 Hours. New York: Many Voices, 1983. ISBN 0394620232.
- With Dorothea Lynch. Exploding into Life. New York: Aperture in association with Many Voices Press, 1986. ISBN 0893811777.
- Below the Line: Living Poor in America. Mount Vernon, NY: Consumers Union, 1987. ISBN 0890430616 (paperback); ISBN 0890430624 (hardback). Text ed. Christiane Bird, story researched by Janine Altongy.
- The Knife and Gun Club: Scenes from an Emergency Room. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989. ISBN 0871132559. 2nd ed. 1995.
- With Edward Barnes. Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue. New York: Aperture, 1994. ISBN 0893815438 (hardback), ISBN 0893815640 (paperback). New York: Aperture, 1996. ISBN 0893816876.
- Americans We: Photographs and Notes. New York: Aperture, 1994. ISBN 0893815942.
- Eugene Richards. Photo Poche. Paris: Nathan, 1997.
- Eugene Richards. Phaidon 55. London and New York: Phaidon, 2001. Text by Charles Bowden.
- Stepping through the Ashes. New York: Aperture, 2002. ISBN 1931788014. With interviews by Janine Altongy.
- The Fat Baby. London: Phaidon, 2004. ISBN 071484196X.
[edit] Videos of Richards
- Lassiter, Kenneth T., Gary Bechtold, et al. Techniques of the Masters (videoconference, April 18, 1991). 1991.
- Richards, Eugene. Eugene Richards Photographer of the Year. Rochester, NY: Eastman Kodak Company, 1991.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Gerry Badger, in Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook: A History, vol. 2 (London: Phaidon, 2006; ISBN 0-7148-4433-0), 30.
- ^ "Eugene Richards", Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), retrieved 17 February 2008.
