About the Photographer

 

I am the quintessential New Yorker; born and raised on Manhattan’s east side, I graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and have been a photographer, artist, and writer for over 30 years.

 

My fascination and love of photography began when a few months out of college I found a Kodak Instamatic. I had never had a camera before, we could never afford one when I was a child. It was a boxy thing, used drop-in loading cartridges, and shot square format pictures (126 film). It had a plastic lens, no light meter, and was a basic point-and-shoot. I used it haltingly at first, but photography soon became an intriguing obsession, and eventually a passion, for reacting to and interpreting the verisimilitude of the world. I loved what it could show me. It was a very different world from the one of painting, one that was full of wonderful and intricate detail, frozen in time. Several months later I purchased my first 35mm SLR, and the journey began.

 

As a photographer I’ve labored as an assistant in studio photography, covered live concerts, and documented the behind-the-scenes activity of independent films as a stills photographer (Beyond Reason, for Comprehensive Films; and Tracks, for Red Moon Productions). A high point came in the early-1980’s when the Curator of Photography at the Brooklyn Museum, Ms Barabra H. Millstein, accepted my work into the museum’s permanent collection.

 

My illustrations have appeared in magazines such as True (Fawcett Publications), Anno Domini; Nuestro, the first national monthly magazine in English for Latinos; Time magazine; and New Music Connoisseur, the contemporary music magazine. My artwork has graced the covers of paperback books for Ace, Ballantine, and Scholastic Publications.

 

In 1988 I began a labor of love documenting the sculptural work of the American sculptor Jacob Lipkin, eventually becoming his friend,  biographer, and writer of Creative Obsession: Reflections on the Life & Art of Jacob Lipkin. It is the only authorized biography of the prominent American sculptor who exhibited nationally from 1940 to 1979 and
won numerous regional and national awards.

 

I began the Eagles of New York™ project (see Eagles Photo Blog) in the Spring of 2011 at the prompting of my lovely wife and have since photographed hundreds of eagles in dozens of New York locations in the five boroughs.

Eagles of New York™ is a natural evolution of my love of art, sculpture, and photography. I think you’ll be refreshed by Eagles of New York™ .

—Richard Rivera, 2012