Photoville

Eugene Richards

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.

Archive Exhibitions Featuring Eugene Richards

In This Brief Life

Brooklyn Bridge Park – Emily Warren Roebling Plaza
 archive

Eugene Richards draws from his latest book, In This Brief Life (2023), a collection of more than 50 years of mostly unseen photographs.

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Red Ball of a Sun Slipping Down

Brooklyn Bridge Park – Emily Warren Roebling Plaza
 archive : 2015

Red Ball of a Sun Slipping Down speaks of life in the Arkansas Delta forty years go and today. Black-and-white photographs made long years ago are interwoven with recent color photographs and, in turn, with a short story.

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Archive Sessions and Events Featuring Eugene Richards

Sep 202015

The American Dream: Documenting Economic Inequality in America

This panel gathers veteran photographers who have made it their life’s work to document stories of poverty and inequality with empathy, depth and curiosity. Motivated by their personal experiences in economically depressed areas, they explore and illustrate what economic inequality looks like in the U.S.

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Sep 262014

For the Love of Books: Red Ball of a Sun Slipping Down

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.

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