ELI REED
Eli Reed joined the elite Magnum Photos 1983 as a nominee and became a full member in 1988. He has been a professor of Photojournalism at the University of Texas since 2005. He spent the 1982/83 school year at Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow studying the History of War, Central America, Japan, economics, politics, fiction writing workshop, and script writing. Reed has worked on various assignment venues for National Geographic, THE New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Life, New York Times Sunday Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Vibe, Vogue, Harpers Bazaar GQ, Oggi, Marie Claire, Vibe, Men’s Health, Ford and Rockefeller foundations, Save The Children, Polaroid, McDonalds, Global Fund, UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, and London Sunday Times covering world news events since 1982.
Reed’s personal books include "Beirut, City of Regrets” 1988, “Black in America” 1997 (text and poetry written by Reed with a preface by Gordon Parks), “I Grandi Fotografi Eli Reed” 2007, and his award winning retrospective titled, “Eli Reed: A Long Walk Home” 2015, with an introduction by Paul Theroux.
Some of his awards include W. Eugene Smith Grant in Documentary Photography 1992, Pulitzer Prize Finalist 1981, Mark Twain Associated Press Award 1981, POY Nikon World Understanding Award 1983, Overseas Press Club 1983, Leica Medal of Excellence 1988, World Press Photo 1988, Kodak World Image Award for Fine Art Photography 1992, Visa pour L'image Festival Du Photoreportage 1993, and the Lucie Foundation Award for Documentary Photography in 2011. Reed directed the documentary film, “Getting Out”, about Detroit gangs which was honored by the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame International Independent Film and Video Competition in 1996. The film was produced from a Magnum Photos production project titled, “The Magnum Eye.”
Reed is a Sony Global Imaging Ambassador working with the Sony mirrorless still/videos cameras. He has worked extensively in the film industry as a still photographer working on films such as: A Beautiful Mind, Kansas City (Collaboration with Robert Altman), Rosewood, The Jackal, One True Thing, Cinderella Man, Stay, Ghosts of Mississippi, 8 Mile, Two Weeks Notice, Poetic Justice, Five Heartbeats, 2 Fast 2 Furious, The Missing, and documentary films such as America’s Children, Poorest in the Land of Plenty, and Mighty Times, the Children’s March.
He has lectured at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway in connection with the “From King to Obama” exhibition 2009, delivered the 2014 Huston-Tillitson University Annual W.E.B. Dubois lecture, and the 2015 Visa Pour L’Image Festival Du Photoreportage in Perpignan, France. Reed spoke at the Schomburg Center in New York City for Research in Black Culture as part of their "Visually Speaking" series. In January 2016, Reed was the keynote speaker at the National Geographic Magazine Photography Seminar in Washington, D.C. He received an invitation by White House staff to give a lecture on his work to government photographers on September 14, 2016 at the Dwight Eisenhower building in Washington, D.C. panel participant of the Onassis Foundation Symposium Panel November 2016: The Role of the Artist in Society, permanent installation of photography of work from exhibition of “Eli Reed: A Long Walk Home” at the U.S. Embassy Phnom Penh, Cambodia, lecture at the Angkor Wat Photography Festival in Cambodia 2016, Visa Pour L’Image Festival Du Photoreportage 2016 in Perpignan, France, 2017 Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar, and the 2017 Xposure Photography Festival in Sharjah, UAE.
Reed has judged National Press Photographers Association POY and CPOY, Department of Defense Military Photographer of the Year, Overseas Press Club, and Getty Documentary Photography Grant competitions. He was an inaugural member of the Pictures of the Year International board of advisors sponsored by the Missouri School of Journalism. Reed is a member of the Afro American photographic cooperative, Kamoinge. He was recently elected into the Magnum International Foundation in February 2018.
Reed is currently involved in writing, upcoming lecture projects, photography book project preparations, and various ongoing fictional and documentary film production projects. They include directing/producing a fictional live action film thriller short, directing and co-producing a documentary feature film on the music legend, Jimmy Stewart, produced by Cedrick Troadec, actor/producer Mathew St. Patrick, and working with a fellow director/producer on a film concerning a African American barber whose outlook on life is bigger then life.