Eli Reed

Ellis (Eli) Reed (born 1946) is an American photographer and photojournalist.^[1][2] Reed was the first full-time black photographer at Magnum Agency and is the author of several books, including Beirut: City of Regrets and Black In America.

Reed was raised in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.^[1] He took his first photograph at the age of 10, documenting his mother by the Christmas tree.^[3] He earned a degree in illustration in 1969 from the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts,^[4] but attributes his direction as a photographer to mentor Donald Greenhaus rather than to formal studies.^[5] In 1982–83 he was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, studying political science and urban affairs at the Kennedy School of Government.^[4][6]

Reed became a freelance photographer in 1970.^[4] After photographing military conflict in Central America, he joined Magnum Photos, becoming its first full-time black member.^[3][6] While working for the San Francisco Examiner, he was a runner-up for the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for documentation of life in a public housing project.^[6][7]

While a Nieman Fellow, he made his first journey to Beirut to photograph the Lebanese Civil War; he returned there several times and was once mistaken for a militant and kidnapped.In 1988 he published Beirut: City of Regrets.^[6] He also covered the 1986 Haiti coup against "Baby Doc" Duvalier, the 1989 U.S. military action in Panama, and unrest in Zaire in 1992,^[8] as well as the Million Man March and African-American life in the US.^[6] His book Black in America, which also includes poetry by Reed, was published in 1997; several photographs from that project have been recognized in juried shows and exhibitions.^{[3][8][9][10]}

Reed has also worked as a still photographer for the film industry, and is a member of the Society of Motion Picture Still Photographers.^[8]

In January 2005 Reed became the clinical professor of photojournalism at The University of Texas at Austin.^[8] He has also taught at the Maine Photographic Workshop; the Wilson Hicks Symposium, Miami University; the Southeastern Museum of Photography, Daytona, Florida; the Smithsonian Institution; San Francisco State University; Harvard University; Boston Institute of Art; the Academy of Fine Art, San Francisco; Columbia University; Empire State College, New York; New York University; and the International Center of Photography, New York; as well as an annual photojournalism workshop for the United States Department of Defense.^[8]

Reed mainly uses the Olympus E-3, E-30, and EP-1 for his work.^[5] He is a Sony Global Imaging Ambassador.^[5] In October 2015, Reed was invited to speak at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture as part of their "Visually Speaking" series. In January 2016, he was a keynote speaker at National Geographic Magazine's Photography Seminar in Washington, D.C.

• 1992 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Documentary Photography
• 1992 Kodak World Image Award for Fine Art Photography
• 1988 World Press Photo award^[5]
• 1988 Leica Medal of Excellence
• 1983 Overseas Press Club Award^[5]
• 1982 Nieman Fellowship at Harvard
• 1981 Mark Twain Associated Press Award
• 1981 Pulitzer Prize, runner-up^[7]
• 2011 Lucie Foundation Award for Documentary Photography

• 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 (first major solo exhibition by a living artist)^[8]
• 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.

^[8][4]

• 2014, Eli Reed Retrospective, A Long Walk Home, Leica Gallery, New York
• 2014, 2015, Visa pour l'image Festival Du Photoreportage, Perpignan, France

• A Long Walk Home, Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015. ISBN 978-0292748576
• Beirut: City of Regrets, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1988. ISBN 978-0-393-30507-4
• Black in America, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1997. ISBN 978-0-393-03995-5
• Homeless in America, 1987.
• Tom Rankin, Local Heroes Changing America, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2000. ISBN 978-0-393-05028-8
• John Singleton, Poetic Justice: Film Making South Central Style. United States: Delta, 1993. ISBN 978-0-385-30914-1

• 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.^[4]

• 2017 Natasha, still photographer, directed by David Bezmozgis
• 2014 One Hundred Years of Freedom, video and still photographer, directed by Daniel Ostroff
• 2005 Stay, still photographer, directed by Marc Forster
• 2003 2 Fast 2 Furious, still photographer, directed by John Singleton
• 2002 Two Weeks Notice, still photographer, directed by Marc Lawrence
• 2002 8 Mile, still photographer, directed by Curtis Hanson
• 2001 A Beautiful Mind, still photographer, directed by Ron Howard
• 2001 Baby Boy, still photographer, directed by John Singleton
• 2000 Shaft, still photographer, directed by John Singleton
• 1998 One True Thing, still photographer, directed by Carl Franklin
• 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
• 1994 Higher Learning, stills, directed by John Singleton
• 1992 Poetic Justice, stills, directed by John Singleton
• 1991 The Five Heartbeats, stills, directed by Robert Townsend ^[4]