A fan's guide to Ellis Reed

Ellis Reed, also known as Eli 'Paperboy' Reed is an award-winning American photographer and photojournalist. Reed was the first full-time black photographer employed by the Magnum Agency and the author of several books, including "Black In America." This article looks at this very talented man in more details.

Starting out

Ellis Reed was born in 1946 and was raised in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. He showed the first sign of a talent in photography when he took his first photograph at the age of ten whilst documenting his mother by the Christmas tree. Reed was primarily self-taught in photography although, he attributes his direction to mentor Donald Greenhaus rather than any formal studies. In fact, he did not even study photography, but instead, he studied illustration at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts and graduated in 1969.

Career

Reed became a freelance photographer in 1970 and Magnum Photos became affiliated with him after the success of his work in such conflicts as the wars in Central America, the war in Lebanon which he covered between 1983–1987, the 1986 Haiti coup against "Baby Doc" Duvalier and the 1989 U.S. military action in Panama. He finally became a full member of the agency in 1988. He has documented the Million Man March, Lebanon during civil war, lives of African-Americans, upheaval in Zaire and U.S. military action in Panama among other things. Reed started making photographs of films and actors in 1992 and is also a member of Society of Motion Picture Still Photographers (SMPSP). Reed mainly uses the Olympus E-3, E-30, and EP-1 camera for his work.

Teaching

In the latter stages of his career, Ellis Reed has moved in to the field of teaching. Reed has taught in numerous places, including: - Maine Photographic Workshop,
- Wilson Hicks Symposium,
- Miami University, Florida,
- South-eastern Museum of Photography,
- Daytona, Florida,
- Smithsonian Institution,
- Washington, D. C,
- San Francisco State University,
- Harvard University,
- Boston Institute of Art,
- Academy of fine Art, San Francisco,
- University of Texas at Austin,
- Columbia University,
- Empire State College,
- New York,
- New York University and
- the International Center of Photography, New York. The teaching at these places has become more prominent in Reed's life as his last photography exhibition came in the year 2000, over a decade ago.