In his presentation, Richards will show excerpts from earlier self-published works, among them Dorchester Days (1978), a study of the inner city neighborhood where he was born, and War is Personal (2010), a chronicle of the consequences of the Iraq War. He will then discuss the motivations, struggles, and joy of creating his deeply personal new book.
Presenters: Eugene Richards
Location: Brooklyn Bridge Park – Pier 5 Uplands
Presented by:
The Arkansas Delta has been called the soul of the South, a place ruled by race, a forgotten place. Eugene Richards first went to the Delta as a volunteer social worker in 1969. It was a year after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a time when cotton, religion, prejudice, and poverty characterized most people’s lives. Over the years Richards would keep returning. Red Ball of a Sun Slipping Dowm speaks then of remembrance and change, of struggle and privation, of loving and loss.
In his presentation, Richards will show excerpts from earlier self-published works, among them Dorchester Days (1978), a study of the inner city neighborhood where he was born, and War is Personal (2010), a chronicle of the consequences of the Iraq War. He will then discuss the motivations, struggles, and joy of creating his deeply personal new book.
The presentation will be followed by a book signing of Red Ball of the Sun Slipping Down.
Eugene Richards is a photographer, writer, and filmmaker who has authored numerous books. His first publication, Few Comforts or Surprises (1973), which speaks of the lives of sharecroppers in the Arkansas Delta, was followed by Dorchester Days (1978), a portrait of the inner-city neighborhood where he was born. Subsequent books include Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue (1994), a study of the impact of hardcore drugs on inner city communities, and War Is Personal (2010), a documentation of the consequences of the Iraq war. Recent books include The Day I Was Born (2020), which focuses on life and protest in the racially divided Delta of Arkansas and In This Brief Life (2023), a look back at 50 years of photographic work.
Among numerous honors, Richards has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Award, the Kraszna-Krausz Book Award for Photographic Innovation, and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award for coverage of the disadvantaged.
Many Voices is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3), nonprofit organization, founded in 1999, with the intent of producing books and films on contemporary social issues.
This website was made possible thanks to the generous support and partnership of 