War Is Personal (2010)- Eugene Richards

War Is Personal (2010)
Photographer/ Author: Eugene Richards

Eugene Richards‘ book War Is Personal delves into the lives of 15 people forever changed by the war in Iraq. As a photojournalist,  Richards is known for unflinching explorations of his subjects’ lives, no matter how uncomfortable. In each chapter, the impact of the war is shown in photographs and interviews with soldiers, husbands, wives, mothers and fathers, revealing their emotional battles more vividly than you might imagine.

When the book was released, in September 2010, Richards visited TIME to discuss his project. “People have done a lot of great work on the war,” Richards said. “But I think the more intimate you get, the closer it comes to you.”

Exploding Into Life (1986)- Eugene Richards

Exploding Into Life (1986)
Photographer: Eugene Richards


Exploding into Life.
Photographs by Eugene Richards.
Text by Dorothea Lynch.


"Exploding Into Life", is a book by Dorothea Lynch and photographed by Eugene Richards chronicles  Dorothea Lynch's (his first wife) struggle with breast cancer, received Nikon's Book of the Year award.

At the age of thirty-four, writer Dorothea Lynch discovered that she had breast cancer. She asked her longtime photographer-friend Eugene Richards to document the surgery and subsequent chemotherapy. During that process, Lynch wrote a diary of her experiences and feelings. The resulting book is a testament to a woman who confronts her own fears about cancer and our medical and cultural attitudes about it. Through Richards' unflinching eye, we are given a grueling tour of what it's like to go through cancer surgery and combative chemotherapy. The coupling of Lynch's personal insight with Richards' intense photographs produces a powerful and valuable book that addresses our fears of one of our most dreaded diseases. Dorothea Lynch tells her story with courage while contemplating her own mortality, and comes through with a resounding affirmation of life.

Eugene Richards- Magnum Photo (1990)

USA, Arlington, Virginia, 1990
Jim Vogt listens to his unburn child's heartbeat as his wife, Sarina, relaxes at home.

Newly born, Washington, DC, 1990 (from "The Next Step").

USA WashingtonDC, 1990

Sarina Vogt cries tears of joy after her newborn son Zachary is placed on her chest. Sarina and her husband Jim were so happy that they didnt notice whether their firstborn was a boy or a girl.

Photograph by Eugene Richards

Photograph by Eugene Richards

Eugene Richards (born 1944, Dorchester, Massachusetts) is a noted American documentary photographer.

During the 1960s, Richards was a civil rights activist and VISTA volunteer. After receiving a BA in English from Northeastern University, his graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were supervised by photographer Minor White.

Richards' published photographs are mostly intended as a means of raising social awareness, have been characterized as "highly personal" and are both exhibited and published in a series of books. The first book was Few Comforts or Surprises (1973), a depiction of rural poverty in Arkansas; but it was his second book, the self-published Dorchester Days (1978), a "homecoming" to Dorchester, Massachusetts, where Richards had grown up, that won most attention. It is "an angry, bitter book", both political and personal.Gerry Badger writes that "[Richards's] involvement with the people he is photographing is total, and he is one of the best of photojournalists in getting that across, often helped by his own prose".

Richards has been a member of Magnum Photos and of VII. He lives in New York.(Wikipedia.org)