Quote: "The main thing for me is that I'm happy that I've been able to work as a professional photographer. What is at the core of my work is, in essence, a mediation on being a human being."

Eli Reed joined Magnum Photos in 1983 and became a full Member in 1988.


Eli Reed
American, b. 1946

Eli Reed was born in the US 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.

Reed began photographing as a freelancer in 1970. His work from El Salvador, Guatemala and other Central American countries attracted the attention of Magnum in 1982. He was nominated to the agency the following summer, and became a full member in 1988.

In the same year Reed 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 and specials 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 Film-makers Hall of Fame International Film and Video Competition in the documentary category.

Reed's special reports include a long-term study on Beirut (1983-87), 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 twenty 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.

Reed has lectured and taught at the International Center of Photography, Columbia University, New York University, and Harvard University. He currently works as Clinical Professor of Photojournalism at the University of Texas in Austin.


Education

1965/69 Pictorial Illustration, Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts
1982/83 Nieman Fellow, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Awards

1992 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Documentary Photography
1992 Kodak World Image Award for Fine Art Photography
1988 World Press Award
1988 Leica Medal of Excellence
1983 Nikon World Understanding Award
1983 Overseas Press Club Award
1982 Nieman Fellowship at Harvard
1981 Mark Twain Associated Press Award
1981 Pulitzer Prize, runner-up

Exhibitions

1997 Leica Gallery, New York, USA
1996 Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT, USA
1993 Visa pour li'mage, Perpignan, France

Books

2000 Local Heroes Changing America, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., USA
1997 Black in America, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., USA
1993 Poetic Justice: Film Making South Central Style, Delta, USA
1988 Beirut: City of Regrets, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., USA
1987 Homeless in America

Films (Production)

1992 Getting Out, director, produced for Tokyo TV, shown at the New York Film Festival
1988 America’s Children: Poorest in the Land of Plenty, photo essay for NBC

Films (Specials/Stills)

1996 Day of the Jackal, stills and specials, directed by Michael Caton-Jones
1996 Ghost of Mississippi, specials, directed by Rob Reiner
1996 Rosewood, stills, directed by John Singleton.
1995 Kansas City, stills and specials, directed by Robert Altman
1995 Clockers, stills editorial assignment for Premier Magazine,directed by Spike Lee
1994 Higher Learning, stills, directed by John Singleton
1992 Poetic Justice, stills, directed by John Singleton
1991 The Five Heartbeats, stills, directed by John Singleton