ICP鈥檚 first retrospective of Eugene Richards (b. 1944) spans nearly 50 years and explores critical themes in the photographer鈥檚 career. Combining original documents, notes, prints and digital videos from the artist鈥檚 collection, the exhibition captures Richards鈥檚 versatility, in terms of both style and subject matter. It is divided into seven thematic sections relating to aspects of socioeconomic struggle, health crises, war and terrorism, and evolving notions of the American family.
Richards is particularly well-known for socially and politically conscious images of American inner-city life. In the 1980s, he and the reporter Edward Barnes worked together on a project dealing with inner-city drug addiction, which successfully presented an intimate and complex view of cocaine and crack addiction across groups of people. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a process of getting to know people and getting them to trust you,鈥 he wrote in 1986. 鈥淸But] I鈥檓 always very aware that I鈥檓 visiting 鈥 that I鈥檓 there, that I have a responsibility.鈥
Richards spent time in Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks. He also spoke to collateral victims and first responders, documenting wounded veterans recently back from Afghanistan and Iraq. He conversed with their family members; attended funeral services, home births and weddings 鈥 always seeking to find the intrinsic relation between problematic places and the humans that inhabit them. In his recent The Blue Room series, Richards captured the Midwest鈥檚 crumbling economic landscape and the repercussions on the local population. Peter Rock鈥檚 Church, taken in 2010 in Arkansas, shows a lively dog next to a tombstone, with a broken-down church in the background. This ongoing concern with the intersection of individual human lives and social circumstances makes Richards a unique and necessary voice in the art world 鈥 and indeed our wider culture.
Olivia Hampton
The exhibition is on view at ICP, New York, until 20 January. Find out more
Credits:
1. Eugene Richards, Wonder Bread, Dorchester, Massachusetts, 1975.
Gelatin silver print. Collection of Eugene Richards. 漏 Eugene Richards.
