Photographer Eugene Richards is Now on Instagram

Heads up: Eugene Richards, one of the great American documentary photographers of our time, has joined Instagram. If you’re tired of staring at cats and selfies, @richardseugene may be an account you should start following today.

Despite being a huge name in photography and a member of Magnum Photos and VII Photo Agency, Richards’ late arrival on Instagram unfortunately meant he wasn’t able to snag the @eugenerichards handle. That account belongs to someone else — a guy with the name “Eugene Richards IV.”

Since joining Instagram earlier this week, Richards has uploaded a few photos to the service already:

Went with my family down to Photoville and had a surprisingly good time in that the exhibition had people talking as much about the issues besetting this country as the photographs. Had to say this made me feel pretty good… @richardseugene

A photo posted by Eugene Richards (@richardseugene) on Sep 12, 2015 at 12:28pm PDT

Kequsha – Jeannette Kern's house in Crawfordsville is on a plot of land between a rice field and a creek that's full of fish and snapping turtles in the spring drying up by fall. While sharing a beer with her husband-to-be Manuel, who'd just come in from work, Jeanette was looking after her granddaughter and niece, Kequsha. She was gentle as could be smoothing back Kequsha's hair. Still, the young girl had this look on her face that was watchful and weighted, as if she was both conscious of the life around her and in her own private world. @richardseugene

A photo posted by Eugene Richards (@richardseugene) on Sep 16, 2015 at 2:30pm PDT

Reverend Landers was a poor man who was on a mission to preach the gospel, while his wife was desperately shy. They had three children. Sammy, the oldest, had what today would be termed a developmental disability. He could hardly talk. The two little girls–it's been so many years–but if I had to describe them, I'd say they were too restless to ever sit still. This picture would have been made on Sunday following the service at their father's church. The girls, wearing their “best” dresses, are running about in the harsh sunlight, tossing what remained of a doll, the only doll they had, back and forth, doing whatever it took to get the other to laugh. Until that singular moment when the older of the girls, the one clutching the doll's head, suddenly grew disoriented and insular, like someone who's hearing voices. @richardseugene #photoville #photojournalism #documentary #arkansas #youth #poverty

A photo posted by Eugene Richards (@richardseugene) on Sep 17, 2015 at 4:24pm PDT

You can find more of Richards’ work over on his website. If you’d like to see more inspiring documentary photography on Instagram, we also suggest that you start following the official Magnum Photos account at @magnumphotos.

(via @richardseugene via Photoshelter)

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Image credits: Header photograph by BurnAway