Eugene Richards

Eugene Richards at the 2010 Texas Book Festival.

Eugene Richards (born 1944, Dorchester, Massachusetts) is an American documentary photographer. Richards has published many volumes of photography and been a member of Magnum Photos and of VII Photo Agency.

Life and work

During the 1960s, Richards was a civil rights activist and VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) 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 of VII Photo Agency. He lives in New York.^[2]

Publications

• Few Comforts or Surprises: The Arkansas Delta. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1973. ISBN 0-262-18062-6.
• Dorchester Days.
  • Wollaston, MA: Many Voices, 1978.
  • Second edition, revised and expanded. London: Phaidon, 2000. ISBN 0-7148-4001-7. With an introduction by Dorothea Lynch and an afterword by Richards.
• 50 Hours. New York: Many Voices, 1983. ISBN 0-394-62023-2. With Dorothea Lynch.
• Exploding into Life. New York: Aperture in association with Many Voices, 1986. ISBN 0-89381-177-7. With Dorothea Lynch.
• Below the Line: Living Poor in America. Mount Vernon, NY: Consumers Union, 1987. ISBN 0-89043-061-6 (paperback); ISBN 0-89043-062-4 (hardback). Text ed. Christiane Bird, story researched by Janine Altongy.
• The Knife and Gun Club: Scenes from an Emergency Room. New York: Atlantic Monthly, 1989. ISBN 0-87113-255-9. 2nd ed. 1995.
• With Edward Barnes. Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue. New York: Aperture, 1994. ISBN 0-89381-543-8 (hardback), ISBN 0-89381-564-0 (paperback). New York: Aperture, 1996. ISBN 0-89381-687-6.
• Americans We: Photographs and Notes. New York: Aperture, 1994. ISBN 0-89381-594-2.
• Eugene Richards. Photo Poche series. Paris: Nathan, 1997. ISBN 978-2-09-754106-2.
• Eugene Richards. Phaidon 55 series. London and New York: Phaidon, 2001. Text by Charles Bowden. ISBN 978-0-7148-4025-3
• Stepping through the Ashes. New York: Aperture, 2002. ISBN 1-931788-01-4. With interviews by Janine Altongy.
• The Fat Baby. London: Phaidon, 2004. ISBN 0-7148-4196-X.
• A Procession of Them. University of Texas Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-292-71910-1.
• The Blue Room. 2008. ISBN 978-0-7148-4832-7.
• War Is Personal. 2010. ISBN 978-0-292-70441-1.
• Red Ball of a Sun Slipping Down. New York: Many Voices, 2014. ISBN 978-0991218905.

Exhibitions

• 2009: The Blue Room, 7 July – 13 September, Les Rencontres d'Arles, France.^[3]

Awards

• 1981: W. Eugene Smith Grant from the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund.^[4]
• 2014: Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, Missouri School of Journalism, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO^[5]

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.

References

1. Gerry Badger, in Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook: A History, vol. 2 (London: Phaidon, 2006; ISBN 0-7148-4433-0), 30.
2. "Eugene Richards", Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), retrieved 17 February 2008.
3. "Exhibitions: Eugene Richards: The Blue Room". Rencontres d'Arles. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
4. "1981: Eugene Richards". W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
5. "Missouri Honor Medal Winners: Individuals". Missouri School of Journalism. Retrieved 16 November 2015.

External links

• Eugene Richards
• "Eugene Richards portfolio", vii.