Hanging out with Eli Reed and the kids from The Community Darkroom

I had the pleasure of taking Eli Reed over to The Community Darkroom here in Rochester. The Darkroom runs a Urban Youth Program and has so for many many years. Here is the official word from the Darkroom.

"The Center provides free arts programs to encourage personal creativity, connect young people to our community, and showcase the positive accomplishments of our youth. Our primary demographic is inner-city children from low to modest income families ranging in age from 10 - 17 years. 

Our photography programs instill the confidence, discipline and critical thinking necessary for future success in school and the workplace while teaching practical skills and nurturing self-expression. 

The curriculum includes elements of composition, how to use a professional 35mm camera, field trips to community sites to take pictures, taking the cameras home to photograph friends and family, and taking portraits in the lighting studio.

The students then make 8X10 black and white prints at Community Darkroom, write poetry or stories to accompany their images, create special projects or a book that incorporates their writing and photography, and produce a slide show of the photographs combined with music and spoken word.

The programs conclude with a public showing of their finished work in the form of a matted and framed exhibition and/or as a multimedia presentation. "

We really only had 30-45 min for Eli to talk to and be with the kids, as I needed to get him back to the museum to get ready for his lecture. We ended up staying for an hour and a half. The kids were glued to Eli's every word. The students put one of their 8x10 photographs on the wall and Eli took the time to talk to each kid about their photo. Eli said he had a wonderful time and would like to visit them again when he comes back to photograph Rochester. 

Thanks to Sharon at the Darkroom for contacting GEH to see if Eli would want to visit and thanks to Eli for taking the time to spend with each student.  

Hanging out with Eli Reed

Eli Reed is a prize-winning documentary photographer, and a member of Magnum. He also works in the motion picture industry as a special photographer.

His exhibition Black in America is on display at George Eastman House.

"Eli Reed has been documenting the black experience in America from the time he began taking pictures. This volume, "Black in America", is his provocative and often poignant portrait of black life in America.

As a photographer, Reed is known for his unflinching coverage of events both large and small. Here we see tender moments between parents and children contrasted with the Los Angeles riots. The joy of a wedding follows the sorrow and anger at the funeral of Yusef Hawkins (whose death sparked the Crown Heights riots in Brooklyn in 1991). The deceptive innocence of rural life balances the tension of the urban drug scene. A 104-year-old woman contemplates her life a few pages away from the Million Man March in Washington, D.C.

There is the truth in Reed's work, as well as anger, and compassion. These images communicate to us - sometimes as gentle as a kiss, sometimes as hard as a bullet. They are all part of Eli Reed's America, and ours."


George Eastman House has commissioned Reed to create a contemporary and localized supplement to his series, photographing Rochester's African-American community. I was fortunate enough to lead the organization and producing for his Rochester work. It always amazes me how much you can accomplish with a few phone calls. I took Eli to see the Campbell Brothers, at the House of God in Rush NY. He was blown away by the music and the hospitality that The Campbell Brothers and their church community extended to us.

Here is Eli with The Campbell Brothers

He also made a contact with Mr. Charles Price, Rochester's first African American Police Officer. Eli and I went to his house where he took a portrait of Mr. Price and his wife.