Eugene Richards: My Inspiration for My Final Project

     Eugene Richards is an American photographer whose work is often very personal to him. He goes around mostly the US capturing the sadness and unfairness of life. From people and children in the hospital from horrible diseases to the poverty stricken people of the country, he captures them all in powerful photographs that has gotten him the reputation of being unable to remove his emotions and personal opinions from his work.

    Many of Richards' photos captured the raw emotions of his subjects. Originally I wanted to simply capture the beauty of an individual's eyes, and I believe I've achieved that, but I would have liked to capture the intricacy behind a persons' iris. Since I was young I had noticed just how beautiful people are and my belief is; everyone is beautiful on the outside. You'll hardly ever find someone who isn't. It's all in a person's eyes. My Mom thinks brown eyes are plain and ugly, but she's not an artist. She doesn't understand that everyone's eyes are different colors, with slightly different designs of their irises. She wasn't exactly happy when I asked to use her for this project.

    Because of my limitations with the camera, I ended up just getting close-up of people's faces and focusing my attention on their eyes. I found that the emotions they portrayed were just as interesting as their eyes themselves. This is where Richards' work comes in. 

    I think my favorite photo of Richards' that I found is this one. The description doesn't say what the child is in the hospital for, but because of the mother's body language and the child's worried expression, it must not be good news. It's not a close-up, but the emotion in the child's eyes is what draws me in personally. You cannot see the details of his iris or exactly what hue the color of it is, but you can see the shape and emotion of them, and that's what matters to me.

    This photo could portray many emotions, but knowing the man in this photo is a reverend somehow brings in extra emotion. The man's face seems welcoming and kind, while the woman behind him, unrelated, looks to be lost in thought and disinterested in the photography. The man seems to be posing for Richards as he takes the picture. Though we're unsure of what could possibly be going on around these people, we do know that Richards took the time to take the photograph, and this man took the time to pose for it.

    Finally, this photo, like Richards' work often is for himself, is personal to me. This photo is taken from his collection "War is Personal." It is likely this woman has lost her husband in the Iraq war. She is holding her child as she seemingly comes to terms with the news. In her eyes is a look of defeat, fatigue, and sadness. Perhaps she is also feeling lost, as she obviously has a child to take care of. How she will explain it to the obviously clueless child is unknown. 

    Richards' photographs are powerful and sometimes gruesome. He usually focuses on people's  expressions in the moment of anguish, uncertainty, and sadness. While I would rather focus on the happier side of life, or capture the neutral expressions of people, I certainly admire someone who goes into the difficult situations of people's lives and photograph the horrible scenes he runs into.