Stepping Through the Ashes

Many photographers have recorded the devastation of September 11th, but Eugene Richards, as always, transcends description to offer instead a way to reconsider. And thus begin to come to terms with this tragedy. Although Richards persistently addresses some of the most difficult and painful aspects of the human condition in his work - from emergency rooms, to poverty, to crack addiction - one senses he is always, if not at him, able to cope assuredly in these circumstances. In Stepping Through the Ashes, as with his seminal book Exploding into Life which chronicled his wife's life with and eventual death from breast cancer, one senses Richards, like so many of us, is digging into the depths of his soul, trying both to work through his own feelings, and to live with the spectre of September 11th. It is for this reason that Stepping Through the Ashes is not only an extraordinary reflection in the wake of such tragedy, but also another turning point in the remarkable work of Eugene Richards. These often metaphorical images are accompanied by Janine Altongy's dramatic interviews with family members who lost loved ones, with survivors, rescue workers, fire-fighters, a police officer, a funeral director, and other witnesses to September 11th.

About the Author :
Eugene Richards was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts. In 1994 Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue received the Kraszna-Krausz Award for Photographic Innovation. That same year. Americans We was the recipient of ICP's Infinity Award for Best Photographic Book. Among numerous honours, Richards has won the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Journalism Award for coverage of the disadvantaged. Janine Altongy was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. A certified social worker, a writer, video editor and documentary film producer, Altongy along with Eugene Richards is the co-producer and author of a fundraising book and a film about Incarnation Children's Centre, a New York City residence for children with HIV and AIDS. Altongy is also codirector of Many Voices, a not-for-profit media group in Brooklyn, New York that produces socially concerned book and films.

Review :
"The intimacy here is often painful, yet it opens a door to shared grief--a common prayer for the dead and the living."--"Black & White Magazine," December 2002 "It may be the best photo book yet on those hard days."--"Albuquerque Journal," September 6, 2002 "Richards' stunning, haunting images--more than most others--make you feel the pain of what was lost."--"Sunday Star-Ledger," September 11, 2002 ." . . a powerful and evocative collection of images of the aftermath of the World Trade Center collapse . . ."--"Publishers Weekly," August 26, 2002 ." . . these photographs are different from those appearing elsewhere. Richards works close to his subjects, always in black and white. His pictures are unobtrusive, making it seem as if you are there."--U"SA Today," September 5, 2002 "A stunning book of images . . . The pictures are electric in their recognition of all that the eye could barely take in. Even with a year gone by, it's difficult to see all this pain, but Aperture deserves our praise for showing the future what the past has wrought."--"O, The Oprah Magazine," September 2002 Richards is arguably the most empathetic photographer working when it comes to showing the hard parts of people's lives . . . Once again, Richards has wrought a personal elegy for those who are just learning to cope with what has happened to them."--"The New Yorker," September 16, 2002