Eli Reed was born in the US in 1946 and studied pictorial illustration at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts, graduating in 1969. In 1982, he was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. At Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, he studied political science, urban affairs, and the prospects for peace in Central America.

Eli began photographing as a freelancer in 1970. His work from El Salvador, Guatemala and other Central American countries attracted the attention of Magnum, he was the first African American photographer, and indeed the first person of colour, to join the agency, becoming a full member in 1988.

In the same year, Eli photographed the effects of poverty on America’s children for a film documentary called Poorest in the Land of Plenty, narrated by Maya Angelou. He went on to work as a stills photographer for major motion pictures. His video documentary Getting Out was shown at the New York Film Festival in 1993 and honored by the 1996 Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame International Film and Video Competition in the documentary category.

Eli’s special reports include a long-term study which became his first, highly acclaimed book, Beirut, City of Regrets; the ousting of Baby Doc Duvalier in Haiti (1986); US military action in Panama (1989); the Walled City in Hong Kong; and, perhaps most notably, his documentation of African American experience over more than 20 years. Spanning the 1970s through the end of the 1990s, his book Black in America includes images from the Crown Heights riots and the Million Man March. In 2015, he published his first career retrospective, A Long Walk Home.

Eli has lectured and taught at the International Center of Photography, Columbia University, New York University, University of Texas and Harvard University and is a member of Kamoinge, the collective of black photographers founded in 1963 and the longest continuously running non-profit group in the history of photography.

On episode 264, Eli discusses, among other things:

His ongoing mentoring of former students
How working in a hospital was good prep for the kind of work he does
Growing up in the Delaney Homes housing project in Perth Amboy, NJ
How a visiting art critic gave him early encouragement at school
Losing his mum at 12 years old
The importance of certain teachers and mentors, especially Donal Greenhouse
How his project Black In America came about
Working for the San Francisco Examiner
Joining Eugene Smith’s workshop after a long wait
How Philip Jones Griffiths invited him to join Magnum
Whether he is still an optimist?
Photographing Trump
Kamoinge
A teaser about the book he is writing
Being the first person of colour to join Magnum Photos

Referenced:

Jaqueline Kennedy
Roy De Carava
W Gene Smith
Bruce Davidson
Eugene Richards
Susan Meiselas
Son of Sam
Gordon Parks
Gilles Peress

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264 - Eli Reed

A Small Voice: Conversations with photographers and filmmakers