Ryan Spencer Reed

Ryan Spencer Reed is an American photographer whose journey documenting critical social issues began in 2002 after he sold his car to finance a move to east Africa. Working in that region to cover the Sudanese Diaspora, Ryan entered Sudan a half dozen times in both the south and Darfur, in addition to covering the mass exodus of refugees to Eastern Chad and Kenya. In late summer 2004, he returned from covering the war in Darfur to prepare that body of work for distribution. Since that time, the work has moved throughout North America to universities in the form of traveling photographic exhibitions and lectures. They have become the driving force, and ultimately the cultural backdrop, for broader symposiums designed to grapple with the issues facing the Sudanese people. They helped to illustrate and charge the divestment and political movements, which have had a marked impact on the ground in Sudan. The Open Society Institute & Soros Foundation awarded him with the Documentary Photography Project’s Distribution Grant in 2006 to help this work reach additional audiences. While exhibiting and speaking internationally on the subject of Sudan, Reed has photographed extensively on the hubris of power amidst the twilight of the American industrial revolution. Nearing the completion of this long-term project, the latest chapter on Detroit is ready for exhibition.