reed is able to capture and preserve the's sense of our humanity with his camera. .. he has made documentaries and don still photography work on such films as poetic justice higher learning, kansas city.

ghost of mississippi beautiful mind and eight mounds. sin 2005 he has joined the faculty of the school of journalism at the university of texas at austin. he is the author of two highly praised books "black in america. a 20-year survey of the african-american experience. "and," beirut: city of regrets." his new e collection of photographs. "long walk home." the man is also a gifted writer. this is from the preface of the new book. my personal journey on the long road has been a medication what it means to be a human being. and i have tried to capture the complicated beauty and reality of life in the visual form. the families of man woman and child, are the reason the dreams of the living are immortal, and i keep listening hoping and

looking. i use my camera to freeze time and to make beautiful images that i hope will find their ways' the dreams to inspire the continuing movement within the circle. i continue the search and live and breathe and wonder at the beauty of it all. ladies and gentlemen mr. eli reed. [applause] >> he -- eli you're going to tell the stories hip your photos. one question i want to ask of one part of your bio your resume didn't read, was the influence, the impact of the seven years you spent as a hospital orderly on your art. >> well, i went to art school and started working at the hospital when i started night classes as an orderly and i couldn't get into the day school. i made into it the day school

the next year. anyway i think that does a lot. my mother passed away when i was 12 and was ill with cancer and i was taking care of her because my father had to work. so then working in a hospital, they had me on the floor where she worked on. which i didn't really get at first. i didn't get that. and they were like her family, the other family i didn't know about. so all that began to help me see life in a different way. i was working at night eventually working at night and going to school at day and that was the start of something. trying to maybe looking at patients and the people i worked with and how they dealt with things. helped point the way towards something. because from the beginning i don't know, as early is a could remember i wanted to figure out things. i was trying to reading thises

like i probably shouldn't be reading when i was so young. i heard about this book called "crime and punishment" i was ten years old. and the librarian gave me a book on crime and punish. the legal aspects law books which i what the heck is this? but that's the kind of way the steps you take and the greek and roman mythology and how things work. why people do the things they do. also growing up during the -- a lot of things in the civil rights movement were happening and you can't help but be influenced by that. just imagine the '60s and so many things happening. a lot came from just reading a hell of a lot. everything i could get my hands on. i didn't care what it was to try to understand the world a bit more. and paul who wrote the introduction said that the thing the noticed about

photographers, we have a good memory. and he is right. the things you see you can't get out of your mind, and so things started to connect with the names the people, the wonderful people you meet, sometimes the terrible people you meet, like to meet somebody who is responsible for the deaths of a lot of people, and yet somehow because a man of god went up to him and said you can't keep doing that, right? and this guy who did this, who didn't just do it one time. he was a walking apocalypse, and the guy listened to reason and he had been doing horrible things sense he was 11, and he changed itch thought the guy was an urban legend. an urban myth, then when i was driving past the -- my driver, and he said, there's this church. you mean this guy's real? and life is like that. you find redemption in places where you least expect it. and it's one of the things that

keeps me going. thinking about what are the possibilities. even people that are evil, have someplace that they want to be -- i don't know -- respected. not just about the power thing. it's much more complicated than that. so i think -- >> thomas moore the book -- the seven story mountain. what happened is i read this a long time ago and i remember seeing -- the words -- i came into the world a child of god loving him and yet hating him. to me that's a complicated kind offing? sets in motion maybe how you see things. your perception of what is good, what is evil, what is -- i worked with a lot -- i love kids. don't have any of my own. kids your immortality. to go on and go further whan than what you dade and -- you

did and change the world. i'm not like pollyanna but i believe everything is possible if you want to do it, and to final out if it's possible you should be able to show it. show the possibilities to people who can see things. like i said i'm not pollyanna but until you can go someplace real you have to deal with what is at present which could be some bad stuff. but also could be some inspirational stuff. and most important pictures i've made are not always about powerful figures. it's about the average person that does some amazing things. and that took a stand at one point or decided to just do a simple thing like baby-sit for a friend who is going through a hard time. it's a little victory. little victories. and god lives in the details. and, no, i'm not going to start preaching to you. i'm just saying how it is. that's what i've tried to do. i've tried to photograph the

details, basically wherever i've been, even in country where i didn't know the language, people talk with their eyes all the time and they can tell what your thinking. just past that little kid? different kinds of intelligence. this kid walks in on me. i don't know because i'm big and black or what. but he locked in on me and said, how is it going and kept going and i wonder what that would do to that kid. but he was interested. he was curious and i try to keep that feeling of being curious all the time and it's not difficult because there's so much stuff out here, so many people that do interesting things, and i want to see it all. i want to see it all. i just want to be able to grab it in and moving into a more -- much more into moving pictures now, but the still pictures still dominate. that's the thing that sticks in your head that you can't get out of your head, and it shouldn't get out of your head. you should be able to remember. the picture -- a friend of mine who grew up in harlem, in new york and i sort of helped get

him a job at the "daily news" by connecting with he former boss, the director of faffy there. -- the director of photography there. he was like the unofficial mayor of new york, and this apicture kind of monday morning -- if i was in town we'd go eat breakfast, a lot of times we'd eat breakfast at the table that malcolm x used to eat breakfast at on 35th street. all about the history. present, past, and the future. and we'd just go bopping long, and he'd take pictures. we'd shoot pictures, just to walk and talk and see people. he knew everybody. he knew everybody in harlem. see this picture. i can barely remember taking it, but i took it, and i mean just because it was something i recognized about kids all over the world have playgrounds and their playgrounds may not be the ones you expect to see or know about. so all that stuff is walking me

towards something. and so this book is 45 years of photography. and it's been a long walk, really and the reason why it happens is because david hammerric, at the university of texas press, -- it was suggested i meet with him to show him my stuff. i just grabbed a whole bunch of stuff because i wasn't sure if i had all the pictures from my home town together, and because i don't like to be looked at as doing one thing. so that's my ego. i want to do more than one thing. and as i was going up the stairs i was thinking have a lot of stuff here. i should start think about a retrospective at some point. i'm 68. that was a few years ago -- couple year ago. i'm old enough to really look back try to look back, anyway.

i had never said anything to anybody. hadn't thought about it. so i go into this office, we shake hands and i threw all the stuff on his table. a big table and he looks at me and says, we got to do a retrospective. what? that is like -- maybe i had some mind control over here or something. i don't know. but it seemed to work. seemed to work. i've always -- not always -- but depended on the kindness of other, including people you wouldn't trust in a second. i kept on seeing good. i kept seeing good things coming out of people that you least expect and that's how they book came about, because of being egotistical enough, i don't want to just be put in one play. and this is the result. 45 years of work. >> shy go over here and push some buttons.

>> it works. can you hear me? okay. well i already talked.this one. and let's see if i push the right button. this is my home town. my former boss and his -- the guy the worked with -- i don't know how it came about. just he moved to new york and ended up -- every time i went home i would walk the streets or visit friends and maybe take some pictures. i'm always going to take pictures. that's what we do. anyway they got the idea of -- the star ledger "maybe we should do a story on your home town. and there's a guy who played on this basketball team who lives in seattle and we were in contact, and so we ended up doing -- he wrote the words and i supplied the pictures and this is one of the pictures. the reason i like this picture is that the little girl is on a street near the high school i

had gone so. she was on the street, bunch of people playing cards. just neighborhood. and looking into her eyes and what is he seeing? what's her possibilities in the future? and i thought dish was looking into my own eyes in a way. myself when i was that young. curious about the world and so i made a few pictures, and that's one of them. >> can you turn down the lights? >> yes kill the lights so i can hide in the dark. i don't know where the lights are. there's some switches over there maybe that will help. just push anything. that not the one. keep on going. how about the ones on the right. all the way on the right. >> that's better. >> okay. don't get me started.

anyway so that's a frame. a lot of times go looking but not looking by just walking. you can't take pictures necessarily from a car. or a truck or whatever, a bus. we do that sometimes. this picture is taken at the atlanta pop. 1970. there's a picture in here where two kids drove me crazy teaching art that this recreational center in my home town the previous year. when woodstock was going on. i had a small motorcycle and thought about driving to woodstock from new jersey so i could see what was -- i was into rock 'n' roll and see this amaking thing but i realized since i only had a learner's permit, one policeman who was not in a good mood, you're going to jail for the weekend son. so i decided to stay with my

job. i still got a picture. this one was -- it's like volunteered work for a rock magazine, i think it paid for it. i was like doing your suburbship get a chance -- your internship first out of town assignment. this was 1970. vietnam was going on. this guy -- i'm sure he had been there and was just, shall we say, relaxed and all the hippies around him were straight, which that was amazing, and when you take the picture, i'm not thinking, i mading. i'm thinking, don't mess up the exposure, frame it up right and do it quickly. so that's one of my favorite pictures though. this is on assignment i did for a san francisco examiner. i just wanted to -- another one -- i have a lot of favorite pictures so bear with me. i like this just because the figure on the right and the thing -- sporting event in the

old football stadium where the san francisco 49ers used to play. these are the two kids who drove me crazy on the second day of woodstock when i didn't go. they broke pencils threw stuff and i went to my car 53 chrysler new yorker that my best friend talked me into buying for $150. i went to the car in retreat. i'm lying on the front seat, and just trying to recover from these two, and all of a sudden i see these hands going across the window and so i reached my camera trying not to move too quickly to square them off and this miss final revenge. waxed lips, really amazing. i wonder where they are now. i hope it frequents them out when they see the picture. >> this is a not so funny picture. a woman and her children. she is homeless because her husband was a batterer and she

had to escape with her kids and is sleeping in her car. so i worked with a minister larry rice, reverend larry rice in st. louis who worked with the homeless. fearless guy. absolutely amazing. i spent some time with him. considerable amount of time and that is one of the pictures i made. also working on this book called "homeless in america" which a lot of people didn't realize how big the problem was. the book was very instructive to helping people understand that. it was an important book to have at least -- americans see something wrong it helps people will work at it. might take a long time, but people will work at it. the right people can make things right hopefully. this was taken san francisco a project called the pink palace, a housing project which was pretty rough -- was not a good

place to live. you could be in your home and somebody come breaking the door in. all kinds of stuff. one gentleman who was beaten up and robbed a number of times and threatened if he told anybody they'd kill him. it was only eight blocks from city hall, and so there's no money, they couldn't do anything about it, and there's actually a television station who went there and they didn't do a very good job actually. i don't think -- they didn't prepare it right. and governor jerry brown he spent two nights there to show how things were going to change. nothing changed. so "the examiner" got myself and corey anders, to a reporter to -- we spent a month covering this. the reason why this picture is -- the thing i made this picture, i don't know if i saul the great america because it's like a shame when something like that is going on.

but you think they're playing right. >> they're not playing. that's for self-defense. i asked one of the kids, just how effective is that? and because you have to be fast. no sooner said it than the stick was up my nose, holding it like this. i said okay, get it. it works. good thing about that experience is that because the newspaper published a big splash but then continued every week to check in on the place and things got made right. that what a good newspaper will do. their service -- public servants. letting people know what is going on so you can make intelligent choices and the examiner was very good at doing big projects like this. it was a big project. wasn't some little thing. you are so estopped steeped into the story you don't sleep much and i find myself driving by even when i didn't have to be because of what was going on.

>> this is mississippi delta. i don't even remember -- oh, this -- this is the sugar ditch. really pretty bad and nothing was being done. things started to get changed again. if no one opens their mouth or says something at the right time or maybe the wrong time, nothing will change. you have a responsibility -- if you know something is going on you have the responsibility to try to do something about it. and sometimes the most important thing you can do, again is look into your kids, teaching your kids the right way helping them get educated in a good way. so i don't expect everybody to drop everything to do something. that's not possible. things are very basic really. how they start. this is another picture from

sugar ditch. kids are kids and they find toys wherever they can find them. this is the story about the effect of poverty on children in the united states. for a documentary and i worked with scott frazier who is now working for i think abc. he was working for cbs the morning show, for a number of years,and he was the director and producer -- the coproducing with national council of churches and he told them that we were going to use some pictures in the documentary and usually ran at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning on a sunday morning but he decided to use the photographs for the guts -- well the photographs along with his powerful interviews with the kids and their parents became the core over the -- of the documentary, and the video film part -- wasn't video it was film that was shot -- was to take you from place to place.

but one of the most satisfying works i've done. even today people have soon the documentary -- this was shown a long time ago in 1990 -- will come up and ask me about the people and what they're doing and this is one of the pictures. these two kids, their families had serious problems. this is 9/11. the next -- well, 9/12. i was in new york when it happened. my agency, magnum, there were 11 photographers in the city because of a meeting the night before so everybody went out and covered what was going on. on the 12th i teach a special military journalism work shop, the 23rd year this year, and fort mead usually in riverside california this year. anyway what happened is that one of the students at the workshop called me up and asked if there was anything to do to help me photograph.

i said, yes take me to the ground zero. so we walked -- he was like in the 82nd airborne, a tactical police officer, and then he joined the coast guard. he was trying to be reasonable because he got married to a wonderful woman didn't want to drive her crazy and they were a great pair. anyway he told me to come to the coast guard headquarters, and then we walked through and a lot of things happened before i took this picture, and i think those pictures -- the things that happened before i took the picture made it possible to take the photograph. you started getting really into people's lives like this. this one police officer, 11 of his friends were killed. they're based in the world trade center. and the shock of that and relating with him and another

fireman who drove in from the midwest because thought we needed help. drove all night to get there. by the time i ran into him he was exhausted. he was stunned about what had happened and -- but you feel like you're trying to -- you're photographing evidence in one way of some major disaster like this something happened. but you're also photographing history, and it's a very personal history to you to a lot of people. that's from my home town. a sidewalk i used to -- well, along the beach i used to go -- i started painting, i started with drawing and painting. that's what got me there which -- i into speed up a little built. ronnie rivera with his wife, the guy on the left, and their 25th wedding anniversary. this is the million man march. this is at the front of the

march. i was working for life magazine. actually was working for myself. i was going there to cover it, and they really did a good job on the pictures they ran. this is the boys of sudan. that was an extraordinary thing. i was working in the movies before i came here, i was working a lot of movies, and one of the people i worked with asked me if i'd be interested in going with him on a film crew to do a documentary which eventually became winter at sun dance. took six years to get it off. but the time things don't change things do change, things don't happen immediately. again, you photographing past, present, and possible futures. stuff is still going on. this is refugees from rwanda, a refugee camp in tanzania. things are still intense at that camp.

this is on a bad day in beirut. we lad troupe for our lives. i saw it coming because of some experience i had before. i warned about -- my driver was not paying attention. great guy but scared to death. if doesn't follow directions you'll get into a situation. oh you're scaring him. no he's scaring me and sure enough the next day i am the only one who got any pictures because i was expecting something, and something happened and i had to tell everybody, count to three and we run. that's how bad it got. this guy was responsible for having eight people taken out of a wake and killed outright, including two kid because the village voted the wrong way in the last election in an area in guatemala, in the countryside. this is about -- -- two seconds

real foose cute as all get out. and all these pictures have stories but we don't have much time. and this is the commissioner of human rights in el salvador where -- done for "the examiner." they were families, mothers sisters, brothers, uncle whatever and this album with this photo. and this is pictures in london -- this is china. recent trip there. this is leon robinson. a buddy -- sometimes -- i go in so many different places guys that are younger than me turn out to be my father. oops. well this is from run dmc. goldie hawn when she produced her first movie. jimmy stewart who -- in dearborn michigan, amazing

gentleman. pictures taken of an actor and she asked me to shoot some stuff. i wanted to do her and john who were going out at the time and didn't want to interfere with them. then john came and said, let's do pictures. okay so here goes. this is any downstairs neighbor. one of my favorite pictures. the kid is dennis the menace but could be president some day. and this is marines coming back from iraq. this is an honor guard in new york. and this is -- this lady is 104 years old. she has a son who is 64, something like that, and he pinched him on the butt, and he says mama, i told you about that. and she said-don't mean anything. okay so questions i guess. [applause] >> time for questions.

>> hello. i just want to say that it really enjoy your work, and -- >> thank you. >> and my question for you is, how do you kind of balance these different aspects of photomaking where you're obviously an artist but also a teller of stories of individual stories and then also kind of controlling the technical aspect of your photomaking. there's a lot to jump bell around and -- jumble around and i'm wondering how you overcome all these different things when you're making photographs. >> that's pretty simple. the question asked if somebody -- you're asking somebody in new york city, how do you get to carnegie hall, and the answer is, practice. that's the only way to do it. i always have -- excuse me. i always have a camera close by,

and you're always learning. by going from still to digital into filmmaking. i worked on movies and learned a lot of stuff. you have to do it. there's no way around it. there's this thinking today that -- unfortunate i think that everybody is equal when you get awards or whatever for make baseball or sports. that's not true. some are better than others, but people rise up and get better. and maybe accomplish more than what the -- maybe somebody who has more talented does...

>> when you see a subject that you want to shoot, do you just take a photo or do you ask permission? i'm curious especially that photo in st. louis of a homeless family in the car. >> it depends. a lot of people you have communication in some situations where maybe you lock eyes with somebody for a situation is happening. if you start a conversation but then i don't run away especially

with that. i introduce myself and explained. there were situations where somebody doesn't feel comfortable being photographed but there are interesting people so if i can i say do have time to talk or a cup of coffee or something like that? it depends. there are no hard rules on that. in france you can get sued if you take pictures of people on the street. the city of light is losing their lives a little bit. they base their reputation on beautiful images of beautiful moments in paris and france but you have to be a human being first. it always comes down to that and because you want to take a picture doesn't mean you have the right to take a picture. also if something's going on you should photograph it if you're a photographer but also be reasonable. there is no set rules except to be nice. that's not difficult to matter

what the circumstances are. if you can sleep without that you did the right thing. >> your subject is on the other side of the camera. what happens in that distance that distinguishes between an average picture and art? what makes it art? >> do you know about physics? >> first of all the human condition is endlessly fascinating and i came out of the arts experience. the table this bottle, the camera all designed by artist people who are creative. i don't enter into it thinking that i'm making art.

what is this nonsense you know? what an artist does best is the world is like chaos and an artist tries to make sense of that chaos in kind of form whether it's music whether it's writing beautiful words like poetry, painting or making photographs. i try to make it seamless and enjoy the experience where possible. i try to understand the experience which is in some ways much more difficult but i'm not going to worry. yesterday a student was taking pictures of me for this news photo magazine. i suggested that he be allowed to make a photograph. he is a great guy and a wonderful person. i wanted to loosen him up so a normal person would have been driven crazy by a photographer tell you what to do but he is a

great guy and he understood. he felt like he was getting a personal workshop and showing them to various things why it cuts to to the core of what a picture really is. it was great because i felt good and he was such a wonderful person and he's going to do wonderful work. he is doing wonderful work now and that's part of the game, the endless game. i don't really distinguish between art but i think pictures of friends of mine better for friends and they take pictures of a shadow. in the movie higher learning i don't work like movie photographers work which i'm not doing now. i'm doing stuff for my movies. anyway what happens is i'm looking after these guys that are skinheads and looking in the shadows and i approach and i approach the way what do photographing of a photo essay

or something. i took some pictures of shadows. maybe 14 pictures or something in "the new york times" thing but that's the fun part. until it's tragic and then you have to sleep with that hymn. whatever pictures you take they don't just leave your head unless you are not being a human being. they stay with you and they can give you nightmares which i get sometimes. you work at it. >> i probably went all over the place. >> thank you very much for your work and thank you for your art and your photos. this book up on the second floor after this is over and ladies and gentlemen please give these "a long walk home" a round of applause. [applause] >> thank you. thank you.

please give eli reed a round of applause. [applause] >> go san antonio book festival coverage continues with other jeff dire who has written an account of what life is like before the aircraft carrier uss george h.w. bush. [inaudible conversations] >> hi everybody. my name is clay smith. i am the program director of this festival so thank you for being here. confronting the drizzle or the mr. the rain or whatever you we want to call it. you are not here for may me

you're obviously here to listen to geoff dyer. let me tell you a little bit about geoff. he and i will be in conversation for a while and we will open up for questions from you all. geoff dyer is the author of four novels to two collections of essays and seven genres by title and they are both beautiful out of sheer rage yoga for people who can't be bothered to do it the ongoing moment and known the epoch about tarkovsky's films. he is the editor of john burgess selected essays on the quieter of what was true, photographs of no books of william gedney. he's a fellow at the royal society of literature and an honorary fellow of corpus christi college at oxford. a selection of his essays entitled otherwise known as the human condition won the national book critics circle award.

thus the official bio geoff dyer the more informal and briefer one says geoff is one of the most intriguing of wide-ranging intellects in today. his written about world war i jobs photography dh lawrence with razor-sharp insight and wit wit. he is a voluble revealing open-minded writer. when an editor asked him where of all the places on earth you would like to spend time to write about this british intellectual chose an american aircraft carrier and that is why we have his latest book "another great day at sea" life aboard the uss george w. bush. you all can meet geoff after the two of us talk here for a bit and get him to buy this book for you and we want you to remember that sales of books during this weekend actually benefit the

festival and help ensure that we can continue to produce this event in the future. we hope you will meet geoff after the two of us talk here for a bit. thanks for coming, sub light. >> thank you clay, good to be here. thank you all for coming. >> is that really how this book got started he peace to you wherever anywhere on earth would you like to spend a little time in order to write about that place and you said on an american aircraft carrier? >> well i can give you a thorough explanation of that. as you know every college everywhere has a rising residence and even some prisons have writers in residence. in addition to the ones who happen to be writers. he once had this strange gig treaty was writer in residence at an airport for two weeks and