Eugene Richards - Red Ball of a Sun Slipping Down - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0991218906 ISBN 13: 9780991218905

Publisher: Many Voices Press, 2014

Synopsis

Title: Red Ball of a Sun Slipping Down <>Binding: Hardcover <>Author: EugeneRichards <>Publisher: ManyVoicesPress

About this title

Review

This self-published book brings together Eugene Richards' work from the Arkansas Delta since the days he first went as there a Vista volunteer in 1969. Some of the work appeared in his first book, Few Comforts or Surprises, published in 1972. It's a mix of classic documentary reportage of the '60s and '70s; the forceful, wide-angle work for which Richards became known in the '80s; and his recent, sublime color work. A single line of text on each page opposite the photographs strings the whole thing together. It's very lyrical, in a way you may not expect if the last Eugene Richards book you looked at was Cocaine True Cocaine Blue or even Walking Through the Ashes. Far more than a collection of Richards' work in the Delta, Red Ball of a Sun Slipping Down is about his fulfillment of a promise made to a woman he met long ago--and to himself.--Mark Murrmann "Mother Jones "

He has always located beauty in the midst of the suffering, not as a means of papering anything over but as a justification for living. He first began taking pictures as a Vista volunteer in the Arkansas Delta from 1969, and in red Ball of a Sun Slipping Down - which was funded through a Kickstarter campaign - he revisits the cotton fields and sharecropers' dwellings and contrasts the black-and-white photos from then with the color shots now. Trailers have replaced wooden shacks, and the gun-toting straw bosses may no longer be in evidence, but generally things do not seem to have changed much at all, and indeed you may find yourself flipping back to certain pictures to ascertain whether they date from this decade or 40 years ago.--Luc Sante "The New York Times "

When Eugene Richards went to the Arkansas Delta in 1969 as a VISTA volunteer, the region was still roiled by the civil-rights movement. He stayed for four years, and many of the pictures in "Red Ball of a Sun Slipping Down" date from that period. Mr. Richards went back later to see people he had grown attached to, and the pictures he took on these visits are interspersed with the earlier ones; the effect is reminiscent of the way all our memories of a place or person we have known for a long time get jumbled in our minds.--Mary Kate McDevitt "The Wall Street Journal "

Eugene Richards' book full of unpublished black and white photos and recent color work is a visual reminiscence of the Arkansas Delta, a region he first entered in 1969, and would continually return to.--Phil Bicker "TIME Lightbox "

This volume, funded by a Kickstarter campaign, artfully blends older black-and-white and recent color images. These are woven together with a short story about rememberance and change, Richard's relationship with the family, and his awareness of his own aging and mortality.--Jack Crager "American Photo "

Edition details

• Publisher: Many Voices Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0991218906
• ISBN 13: 9780991218905
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 112