For this exhibition, Eugene Richards has drawn from his latest book, In This Brief Life (2023), a collection of more than 50 years of mostly unseen photographs – from his earliest pictures of sharecropper life in the Arkansas Delta to the present. In the midst of a fraught political climate – pandemic, rise in gun violence, polarized politics – Richards found himself meditating on what it means to make socially conscious documentary photography today. Upon his son’s suggestion, he began to post his photographs on social media, sifting through dusty binders of contact sheets – photographs taken for a community newspaper, on assignment for magazines, as a volunteer for human rights organizations, when wandering alone and at home with his family – and scanning the negatives.
Artist Bios
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Eugene Richards
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.
Organizations
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Many Voices
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.
In This Brief Life
Featuring: Eugene Richards
Curated by: Eugene Richards
Supported by:
Locations
ON VIEW AT: Container 21
View Location Details Download a detailed map of this location Brooklyn Bridge Park – Emily Warren Roebling Plaza1 Water St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
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