Eugene Richards

35mmdelux

35mmdelux

Veni, vidi, vici
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I've only recently come upon Eugene Richard's work...

I checked his website and I find his images compelling. In BBC documentary he talks of shooting with wide-angles but his website looks like he shoots with longer lenses.

Any info on Richard would be appreciated. TKS.
 
I took a workshop with him last year, he is a great guy. He is very modest, understated and has no ego to speak of when one thinks of the kind of egos that can come of being a photographer.

He will be at Look3 teaching the workshop again, it was a great class last year:

http://look3.org/workshops/photographing-people/

My work from the class:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23585735@N06/sets/72157607942514112/show/

He has several great books out of which I own, "The Fat Baby", "Dorchester Days", "Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue" & "American's We":

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b...ield-keywords=eugene+richards&sprefix=Eugene+

I suggest "The Fat Baby" as a first book since it has some great writing in narrative style. In 2007, Richards became the recipient of the first ever National Geographic Grant for Photography with a portfolio titled, "War is Personal":

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/photo-grant/2007-recipient

In the January 2008 issue of National Geographic, Richards used a Leica R8 SLR with color negative film to record the ghost towns of North Dakota:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/01/emptied-north-dakota/richards-photography.html

He was mentored by Minor White.
 
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Others here seem to have met him, very cool.

There’s a short interview in which he mentions as major influence on him the B&W movies of the 40’-50’s, using super-wideangles for deep focus (he mentioned in the same breath Citizen Kane, where 'deep focus' was used extensively for the first time). I 've also read somewhere he doesn't have very good eyesight which also somewhat explains the predilection for the 21mm focal length.

His mentorship by Minor White is one of the startlingly odd pairings in the history of photography, as the two couldn't be more different in their themeology.

Great photographer, apparently a nice person too.


.
 
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Eugene Richards is one of he most emotionally strong people photographing in the world. His photographs have an incredible power. I am always surprised at how far under the radar he flies. Anyone who is not familiar with his work is missing out on a lot. I agree with the suggestion to get The Fat Baby, the combination of his words and images is very strong. But, all of his books are worth your time.
 
The Knife and Gun Club is one of my touchstones. I’m glad to see this discussion because I first knew his work while I still was primarily about narrative writing, not letting myself get distracted by photography oeuvres or careers etc., and so I have managed to remain pretty ignorant of his range. Thanks for this.
 
Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue is an incredible piece of work. To get the photos in that book you would have to be understated, humble and emotionally strong!
 
He was my inspiration while in college. Years after graduation he was invited there to speak to the current students at my alma mater so I decided to take a drive and attend the event. The first day there my old mentor/professor, who is chair of the photojournalism program there asked if we could take my car to go run an errand. Sure. He directs me to the hotel nearby where, as I pull up, Richards is standing outside. What? WHAT!? Eugene Richards. Sitting in the back of my cramped Corolla, a stack of his books in the seat next to him (I had brought them along hoping maybe he would sign them.) So now I look like a nerd, he says to me "I see we have a fan, I'll sign these for you." hahah.

What a weekend, picking his brain and talking life and photography throughout the following days and over dinner. It was like meeting a superstar. An experience I'll treasure forever.
 
Steve_Pfost said:
He was my inspiration while in college. Years after graduation he was invited there to speak to the current students at my alma mater so I decided to take a drive and attend the event. The first day there my old mentor/professor, who is chair of the photojournalism program there asked if we could take my car to go run an errand. Sure. He directs me to the hotel nearby where, as I pull up, Richards is standing outside. What? WHAT!? Eugene Richards. Sitting in the back of my cramped Corolla, a stack of his books in the seat next to him (I had brought them along hoping maybe he would sign them.) So now I look like a nerd, he says to me "I see we have a fan, I'll sign these for you." hahah.

What a weekend, picking his brain and talking life and photography throughout the following days and over dinner. It was like meeting a superstar. An experience I'll treasure forever.
Click to expand...


Wow! Great story!!
 
I have several of his books and they are all just wonderful. But The Blue Room is a stand out for me. No people, but merely the traces of their abandoned homes with all their slowly decaying detritus in rural America. It's not at all my preferred genre or medium (almost all my favorite photobooks are b/w and this is all color), but this book really hit me. For example, the wedding dress left behind, hanging on the back of a door in an abandoned house, will never stop haunting me. Similarly, the discolored walls, with voids where family pictures hung. Piles of family photographs left on the floor. Mattresses sinking into themselves. And the numerous images of nature slowly reclaiming these spaces of former human habitation ... dead insects, abandoned birds nests on picture frames, dead animals, the carcass of a barn owl, tumbleweeds in a sitting room. Reflections in broken glass. Torn screens. An artificial limb laying in a doorway among boxes as they slowly turn to mush.

This reminds me to go re-look at this book again.
 
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