Eli Reed facts for kids
Ellis (Eli) Reed (born 1946) is an American photographer and photojournalist. A photojournalist is someone who takes pictures for news stories. Eli Reed was the first full-time Black photographer to join the famous Magnum Agency. He has also written several books, including Beirut: City of Regrets and Black In America.
Contents
Early Life and Learning
Eli Reed grew up in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. He took his very first photograph when he was just 10 years old. It was a picture of his mother by their Christmas tree.
He studied illustration and earned a degree in 1969 from the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts. However, he says that his mentor, Donald Greenhaus, helped him become a photographer more than his school studies did. Later, in 1982 and 1983, he was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. This was a special program where he studied politics and city life.
Eli Reed's Photography Career
Eli Reed started working as a freelance photographer in 1970. This means he worked for himself and sold his photos to different places. After taking pictures of conflicts in Central America, he joined Magnum Photos. He was the first full-time Black photographer to become a member of this important agency.
While working for the San Francisco Examiner newspaper, he was recognized for his amazing photos. He was a runner-up for the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. This award was for his pictures showing daily life in a public housing project.
Photographing World Events
During his time as a Nieman Fellow, Eli Reed traveled to Beirut for the first time. He went there to photograph the Lebanese Civil War. He returned many times and even faced danger, once being mistaken for a fighter and kidnapped. In 1988, he published his book Beirut: City of Regrets.
He also covered other big events around the world. These included the 1986 change in government in Haiti and the 1989 US military action in Panama. He also photographed unrest in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1992. In the United States, he captured images of the Million Man March and everyday life for African Americans. His book Black in America, which also includes his own poems, came out in 1997. Many photos from this project have won awards and been shown in exhibitions.
Eli Reed has also worked as a still photographer for movies. This means he takes photos on film sets. He is a member of the Society of Motion Picture Still Photographers.
Teaching Photography
In 2005, Eli Reed became a professor of photojournalism at The University of Texas at Austin. He has also taught at many other well-known places. These include the Maine Photographic Workshop, the Smithsonian Institution, Harvard University, and New York University. He even teaches an annual workshop for the United States Department of Defense.
Eli Reed mainly uses Olympus cameras for his work. He is also a Sony Global Imaging Ambassador. In 2015, he was invited to speak at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. In 2016, he was a main speaker at National Geographic Magazine's Photography Seminar.
Awards and Recognition
Eli Reed has received many important awards for his photography:
- 1992 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Documentary Photography
- 1992 Kodak World Image Award for Fine Art Photography
- 1988 World Press Photo award
- 1988 Leica Medal of Excellence
- 1983 Overseas Press Club Award
- 1982 Nieman Fellowship at Harvard
- 1981 Mark Twain Associated Press Award
- 1981 Pulitzer Prize, runner-up
- 2011 Lucie Foundation Award for Documentary Photography
Exhibitions of His Work
Eli Reed's photographs have been shown in many exhibitions around the world:
- 1973, The Black Photographer, Syracuse University
- 1973, New Jersey Photographs
- 1975, New Jersey Prisons, Newark Museum of Art
- 1975, The Whole Sick Crew, Newark-Rutgers University
- 1993, Visa pour l'image, Perpignan, France
- 1996, Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut (his first major solo exhibition)
- 1997, Leica Gallery, New York
- 1997, Magnum World exhibition and catalogue
- 1999, Black New York Photographers of the 20th Century Exhibition, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
- 2000, Indivisible
- 2000, Reflections in Black, and A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present, Smithsonian Museum, Washington, D. C.
- 2014, Eli Reed Retrospective, A Long Walk Home, Leica Gallery, New York
- 2014, 2015, Visa pour l'image Festival Du Photoreportage, Perpignan, France
Films He Worked On
Eli Reed has contributed to several films, both as a director and as a still photographer.
Film Production
- 1988 America's Children: Poorest in the Land of Plenty, a photo essay for NBC.
- 1992 Getting Out, he directed this film for Tokyo TV, and it was shown at the New York Film Festival.
Still Photographer for Movies
Eli Reed took still photographs for these movies:
- 1991 The Five Heartbeats, directed by Robert Townsend
- 1992 Poetic Justice, directed by John Singleton
- 1994 Higher Learning, directed by John Singleton
- 1995 Kansas City, directed by Robert Altman
- 1996 Rosewood, directed by John Singleton
- 1996 Ghost of Mississippi, directed by Rob Reiner
- 1996 Day of the Jackal, directed by Michael Caton-Jones
- 1998 One True Thing, directed by Carl Franklin
- 2000 Shaft, directed by John Singleton
- 2001 Baby Boy, directed by John Singleton
- 2001 A Beautiful Mind, directed by Ron Howard
- 2002 8 Mile, directed by Curtis Hanson
- 2002 Two Weeks Notice, directed by Marc Lawrence
- 2003 2 Fast 2 Furious, directed by John Singleton
- 2005 Stay, directed by Marc Forster
- 2014 One Hundred Years of Freedom, directed by Daniel Ostroff
- 2017 Natasha, directed by David Bezmozgis
