Eugene Richards is a professional photographer from Dorchester, Massachusetts. Though most of his notoriety is generated from books he has published (fifteen so far including titles such as Fat Baby, Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue, and a Procession of Them) much of his work has also been featured in several magazines like National Geographic, LIFE, and the New York Times. Richards has had a hand in documenting social/political affairs from racism in Arkansas to cultural changes in his hometown.
Although I was unaware of the photographer himself, I first came upon Richards work in a publication of National Geographic back when I was in high school. The article, titled "The Empty Prairie" discussed the increase of ghost towns in rural North Dakota due to steady economic regression. The images can best be described in the context of the article itself: sparse, barren, devoid - a memorandum to what once was or what could have been but almost always with a startling reminder of what may or will be; a tongue of flame leaping from an oil well in the middle of nowhere, a spray of snow over a decrepit bedroom, the flash of a man's eye reminding the viewer that life and inevitable change persist in even the gloomiest, most monotonous settings. Needless to say, those photos had a sufficient effect for me to remember them nearly five years later -
to make a seemingly meaningless article that had nothing to do with me become relatable enough to have
everything to do with me, if that makes any sense.
