Eli Reed was born in the US in 1946 and studied pictorial illustration at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts, graduating in 1969. In 1982, he was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. At Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, he studied political science, urban affairs, and the prospects for peace in Central America.

Eli began photographing as a freelancer in 1970. His work from El Salvador, Guatemala and other Central American countries attracted the attention of Magnum, he was the first African American photographer, and indeed the first person of colour, to join the agency, becoming a full member in 1988.

In the same year, Eli photographed the effects of poverty on America’s children for a film documentary called Poorest in the Land of Plenty, narrated by Maya Angelou. He went on to work as a stills photographer for major motion pictures. His video documentary Getting Out was shown at the New York Film Festival in 1993 and honored by the 1996 Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame International Film and Video Competition in the documentary category.

Eli’s special reports include a long-term study which became his first, highly acclaimed book, Beirut, City of Regrets; the ousting of Baby Doc Duvalier in Haiti (1986); US military action in Panama (1989); the Walled City in Hong Kong; and, perhaps most notably, his documentation of African American experience over more than 20 years. Spanning the 1970s through the end of the 1990s, his book Black in America includes images from the Crown Heights riots and the Million Man March. In 2015, he published his first career retrospective, A Long Walk Home.

Eli has lectured and taught at the International Center of Photography, Columbia University, New York University, University of Texas and Harvard University and is a member of Kamoinge, the collective of black photographers founded in 1963 and the longest continuously running non-profit group in the history of photography.

On episode 264, Eli discusses, among other things:

• His ongoing mentoring of former students
• How working in a hospital was good prep for the kind of work he does
• Growing up in the Delaney Homes housing project in Perth Amboy, NJ
• How a visiting art critic gave him early encouragement at school
• Losing his mum at 12 years old
• The importance of certain teachers and mentors, especially Donal Greenhouse
• How his project Black In America came about
• Working for the San Francisco Examiner
• Joining Eugene Smith’s workshop after a long wait
• How Philip Jones Griffiths invited him to join Magnum
• Whether he is still an optimist?
• Photographing Trump
• Kamoinge
• A teaser about the book he is writing
• Being the first person of colour to join Magnum Photos

Referenced:

• Jaqueline Kennedy
• Roy De Carava
• W Gene Smith
• Bruce Davidson
• Eugene Richards
• Susan Meiselas
• Son of Sam
• Gordon Parks
• Gilles Peress

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Magnum legend Chris Steele-Perkins was born in Burma in 1947 to a Burmese mother and an English father, who brought him back to England when he was 2 years old. He published his first photobook The Teds in 1979 and shortly after that joined Magnum photos after an invitation to apply from none other than Josef Koudelka. He subsequently travelled all over the world, covering many of the major global conflicts of the 80’s and 90’s in between working extensively in his home country, and producing a number of books of that work, along with those from Afghanistan and later from his wife’s native country of Japan. He has won, to name but a few awards, The Oscar Barnack Prize, The Robert Capa Gold Medal and a number of World Press awards, and all that despite the fact that he doesn’t really consider himself to be a photojournalist.

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Tony Dočekal (Amsterdam, 1992) is a photographer and visual artist. Her work explores identity, belonging, and the friction between autonomy and societal expectations. Working intuitively, she combines personal encounters with quiet observations. Her images balance intimacy and distance, often showing how personal stories and landscapes reflect larger systems.

Tony’s first book, The Color of Money and Trees, was published by VOID in 2024 and launched at Paris Photo. The work was also exhibited at Biennale Images Vevey alongside her debut short film, Pearls on Credit. She holds a BA in Fine Arts from ArtEZ University of the Arts.

In episode 263 Tony discusses, among other things:

• Her Czech dad and Dutch mum’s history
• Dealing with the ‘weight’ of the photographic history of the American road trip genre
• The advantage of being an outsider
• Getting a dream gig early on - a photobook book about alternative schools
• Going to Lesbos to cover the refugee crisis
• Working with the unhoused for Dutch non-profit the Sheltersuit Foundation
• The story behind her picture of a man in a pink frilly dress…
• … And the one of 9-year-old Lyric in front of a plate of beans
• The short film she made
• The amazing 70’s-built house she has bought with her partner

Referenced:

• Josef Koudelka

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