BIOGRAPHY
Eugene Richards was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1944. After graduating from Northeastern University with a degree in English and journalism, he studied photography with Minor White at M.I.T. In 1968 he joined VISTA, Volunteers in Service to America, and was assigned to eastern Arkansas, where he helped found a social service organization and a community newspaper, Many Voices, that reported on black political action and the violence of the Ku Klux Klan.
After publication of his first two books—Few Comforts or Surprises: The Arkansas Delta and Dorchester Days—he began working as a freelance magazine photographer. He has undertaken assignments for LIFE, The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, TIME, The New Yorker, Mother Jones and Natural History on such diverse topics as the American family, drug addiction, river blindness, pediatric AIDS, abuses within the meat packing industry, aging and death in America. But Richards is perhaps best known for his books; he has authored thirteen. Published in 1986 Exploding Into Life chronicles his first wife Dorothea Lynch ‘s struggle with breast cancer. It received Nikon's Book of the Year award. For Below The Line: Living Poor in America, his photographic documentation of urban and rural poverty, Richards was named Photojournalist of the Year by the International Center of Photography. The Knife & Gun Club: Scenes from an Emergency Room received an Award of Excellence from the American College of Emergency Physicians. In 1994, Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue, an extensive reportorial in words and pictures on the effects of hardcore drug usage on three inner city communities, received the Kraszna-Krausz Award for Photographic Innovation in Books. That same year, Americans We was the recipient of the International Center of Photography's Infinity Award for Best Photographic Book. Co-authored by Janine Altongy, Stepping Through the Ashes, an elegy to those who lost their lives in New York on September 11, 2001, received the Golden Light Book Award for best collaboration with a writer. The Fat Baby, an anthology of textual and photographic essays produced over the past dozen years, was chosen Best Book by Pictures of the Year International (POYi).
Among numerous honors, Richards has won the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, three National Endowment for the Arts grants, the Leica Medal of Excellence, the Leica Oskar Barnack Award, the Olivier Rebbot Award from the Overseas Press Club, three Canon Photo Essayist Awards, and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Journalism Award for coverage of the disadvantaged. But, the day came, a film written and directed by Mr. Richards, was named Best Short Film at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. It subsequently screened worldwide at dozens of festivals, including the Cinema du Reel in Paris.
Eugene Richards's photographs have been collected and exhibited in more than forty one-man shows in the United States and abroad. His work has been exhibited at Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie in Arles, the International Center of Photography, Centre National de la Photographie, the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, and VISA Pour L’Image.
CURRICULUM VITAE
Books
1973. Few Comforts or Surprises: The Arkansas Delta, MIT Press, Cambridge
1978. Dorchester Days, Many Voices Press, Massachusetts
1983. 50 Hours: The Birth of Henry Harry, Many Voices Press, Massachusetts
1986. Exploding Into Life, Aperture, New York
1987. Below The Line: Living Poor in America, Consumer Reports Books, New York
1989. The Knife and Gun Club: Scenes from an Emergency Room, Atlantic Monthly Press, New York
1994. Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue, Aperture, New York
Americans We, Aperture, New York
1997. Eugene Richards, Nathan Editions, Paris
2000. Dorchester Days, Phaidon Press Ltd., London
2001. Eugene Richards: 55, Phaidon Press Ltd., London
2002. Stepping Through the Ashes, Aperture, New York
2004. The Fat Baby, Phaidon Press Ltd., London
Films
1992. Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue
2000. But, the day came
2003. The run-on of time
2004. A Procession of Them
2005. War Is Personal
2006. Nothing Short of a Miracle
Fellowships and Grants
1973. National Endowment for the Arts Grant
1978. Massachusetts Council on the Arts Grant
1980. Guggenheim Fellowship
1981. W. Eugene Smith Memorial Award, "Denver General Hospital"
1983. National Endowment for the Arts Grant
1985. New York Foundation on the Arts Grant
1987. New York State Council on the Arts Grant
1989. Gahan Lectureship, Harvard University
1990. National Endowment for the Arts Grant
New York State Council on the Arts Grant
1996. Hasselblad Foundation Grant
Kaiser Media Fellowship in Health
1998. Project on Death in America Artist Fellowship, Open Society Institute
2000. Project on Death in America Artist Fellowship, Open Society Institute
2002. NPPA/Nikon Sabbatical Grant
Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism
Awards and Honors
1986. Nikon Book of the Year Award, Exploding Into Life
1987. International Center of Photography Infinity Award, Photojournalist of the Year,
Below The Line: Living Poor in America
1988. Leica Medal of Excellence, Homeless in America
1989. Canon Photo Essayist Award, "Crack: The Downfall of a Neighborhood"
American College of Emergency Physicians Award, The Knife and Gun Club
Lyndhurst Prize
1990. POY Magazine Photographer of the Year
1991. Leica Medal of Excellence, "Drugs in America"
1992. Canon Photo Essayist Award, "The American Family"
1993. Leica Oskar Barnack Award, "The Nigerian Wetlands"
1995. Kraszna-Krausz Book Award for Photographic Innovation, Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue
International Center of Photography Infinity Book Award, Americans We
Olivier Rebbot Award from the Overseas Press Club, "Children of the Blind"
1996. POY Magazine Photographer of the Year
1997. 100 Best People in the World -- Photojournalist, Esquire
1998. POY Magazine Photographer of the Year
Canon Photo Essayist Award, "Surviving in Safo"
Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Journalism Award
2000. Best Short Film, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, but, the day came
Best Documentary, Hope & Dreams Film Festival, but, the day came
Kodak Cinematographer Award, NY EXPO, but, the day came
2001. Olivier Rebbot Award from the Overseas Press Club, "Global Willowbrook"
2002. Golden Light Book Award, Stepping Through the Ashes
2005. iPOY Best Photography Book, The Fat Baby
100 Most Important People in Photography, American Photo
Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Leslie University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
25 Most Influential Living Photographers, Photo District News
Selected One-man Exhibitions
1972. Center for Photographic Studies, Louisville, KY
1974. Half Moon Gallery, London
1977. Nikon House, New York
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA
1980. Visions Gallery, Boston
1982. Soho Photo Gallery, New York
1984. Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA
1988. Photographic Resource Center, Boston
Union Square Gallery, New York
Amber Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom
Cameraworks, San Francisco
1989. Houston Center of Photography, Texas
1990. New-York Historical Society, New York
Chicago Historical Society, Chicago
1991. Smithsonian Institution, Washington
Minnesota Museum of Art, Minneapolis
VISA Pour L'Image, Perpignan, France
1992. Galerie Fotohof, Salzburg
1993. De L'Ecole Superieure Artistique "Le 75", Bruxelles
1994. International Center of Photography, New York
1995. FOTOMASSAN, Goteborg, Sweden
1996. Bristol-Myers Squibb Gallery, Princeton, NJ
1997. Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles
1998. Tremaine Gallery at The Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, Connecticut
Centre national de la photographie, Paris
Centre Photographique d'Ile de France, Pontault-Combault
Steven Kasher Gallery, New York
Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles
1999. Marlboro College, Marlboro, Vermont
2001. Center for Photography, U.C. Berkeley
Gallery of Photography, Dublin
2002. Aperture’s Burden Gallery, New York
Southeast Museum of Photography, Florida
Camera Obscura Gallery, Denver
Philadelphia Art Alliance
2004. Leica Gallery, New York and Tokyo
VISA Pour L'Image, Perpignan, France
2005. Art Institute of Boston, Lesley University
Moving Walls, Open Society Institute, New York
Gage Gallery, Roosevelt University, Chicago
Pingyao International Photography Festival, China
2006. Columbia University School of Social Work
