It’s been almost thirty years since the publication of Eugene Richards’ landmark book, Below the Line: Living Poor in America. The book, though acclaimed at the time, was also controversial. Critics applauded the revealing nature of the stories, but often added, as if in the same breath, that what was being shown was a negative view of the country, one that lacked hope. Pushed to reply, Richards countered that these stories were, in fact, portraits in courage. Each person encountered on his journey across America was struggling, against great odds, to better him or herself.
On the occasion of its 5th anniversary in October 2016, the BDC is honored to present Below the Line: Living Poor in America by Eugene Richards. The exhibition will feature more than two dozen black and white photographs from Richards’s seminal project that depicts the extent of poverty in the United States in the mid 1980s. The project garnered Richards the 1987 International Center of Photography Infinity Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Photographic Reportage.
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