Eastman House presents a selection of works from celebrated Magnum photographer Eli Reed's signature portfolio Black in America. The display of 20 images, on view through June 29, features intimate moments of everyday rural and urban life, reflecting the African-American experience from 1978 through 1996. A special addition will be Reed's recent photographs of Rochester's African-American community.

Reed is one of America's leading African-American photojournalists. Black in America is a provocative and often poignant portrait of African-American life in America. Featured are intimate moments of everyday rural and urban life — the joy of a wedding, tender moments between parents and children, the Million Man March, a 104-year-old woman contemplating life on her front porch, teenagers breakdancing on a Civil War site in South Carolina.

Reed, who has been a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize and bestowed the World Press Award and Overseas Press Club Award, has been documenting the black experience in America from the time he began taking pictures. He pursued what he describes as a "self-assigned" project to translate artistically his encounters with black Americans from all walks of life, in communities from across the United States, into the medium of photography. In describing his Black in America series, Reed noted he was dealing "with life for black Americans now and reaching into the next century."

George Eastman House has commissioned Reed to create a contemporary and localized supplement to his series, photographing Rochester's African-American community in mid-February. Now working in color, Reed's newest body of work will extend his project into the 21st century. The Rochester images, which are exhibited digitally on a computer monitor alongside Reed's framed photographs, allow Rochesterians to view their community though new eyes.

"More than mere documents of events, Reed's photographs are direct and emotionally gripping," describes Magnum Photos. "There is a sureness to the work — a compelling immediacy and resonance. While they inform us, they can also move us to tears, to understanding and to action. The work allows viewers to step back a bit from the immediacy of today's headlines and raises issues about social change and the relationships between history, journalism, memory, and what happened."

LOSS/HOPE
In a series of exhibitions opening throughout winter and spring 2008, George Eastman House focuses on the photograph’s unique ability to take its viewers to parts of the world they might not otherwise know or care about. From the slums of 19th-century London, to the Depression dust bowl, to the variety of contemporary lives in black America and the Middle East, the series LOSS/ HOPE informs us and asks for our engagement by considering the notion of loss, both personally and as a result of industrialization and poverty.
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LOSS/HOPE Exhibitions:

• Not Forgotten: Portraits of life and death in Rochester (On view January 19 through March 2)
• Larry Towell: The World From My Front Porch (On view February 16 through June 15)
• Conscience The Ultimate Weapon (On view March 12 through June 1)
• Facing the Other Half (On view March 8-June 15, 2008)