Eugene Richards

Eugene Richards is a noted American documentary photographer. Born in Dorchester Massachusetts 1944, graduated in English and journalism he later studied photography with Minor White at M.I.T. During the 1960s he was a civil rights activist and VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) member. After the publication of his first two books, Few Conforts or Surprises: The Arkansas Delta (1973) and Dorchester Days (1978) Richards was invited to become a member at Magnum Agency. His work has appeared in a moltitude of publications including The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, Time, Newsweek and Life winning numerous awards. The artist is world wide known for his thirteen books and photo essays on such diverse topics as breast cancer, drug addiction, poverty, emergency medicine, pediatric HIV and AIDS, the meat packing industry, the plight of the world’s mentally disabled, anging and death in America. The photo-essay on inner-city communities devasted by the cocaine-crack epidemic brings into sharp focus the colossal failure of the war on drugs. His inspiring black and white photographs are described with interviews with dealers, drug users and police officers. Richard’s portrait are permeated by the reality of drugs and isolation in North Philadelphia, Brookling, East New York and Reed Hook. It describes with intense accuracy the havoc drugs wreak on lives, families as cocaine and heroine addiction intersect with poverty, AIDS, homelesnes, and availability of guns that affect every American City. I believe he is penetrating and painful.He is one of the masters of photo-journalism in the way he can get close to people and make them feel confortable enough to trust him. He brings pain and true reality in front of us.

Bibliography:

·The blue room, Eugene Richards Phaidon 2008

·Cocaine Blue Cocaine True Eugene Richards 1994

·Eugene Richards Phaidon Press 2001

·amazon.com/Cocaine-True-Blue-Eugene-Richards/dp/0893816876

·goodreads.com/book/show/83924.Cocaine_True_Cocaine_Blue