American. Born in New York City. Ric lives in Norway.
City University of New York, January 1989 – Bachelor of Arts Degree, Communications – Media Studies
At the beginning of his career Ric was an alumnus of the Eddie Adams Workshop IV (1991). After years spent working as a staff news photographer (The Bergen Record, Hackensack, New Jersey, The Times Picayune, New Orleans, Louisiana, and The Associated Press, Los Angeles, California) he quit The Associated Press, in January 2009, and moved to Lima, Peru, to focus on documentary work in South America. He subsequently moved to Nairobi, Kenya in May 2012, Kampala, Uganda in May 2014, Kigali, Rwanda in July 2015 and Oslo, Norway in September 2017.
His editorial photographs have appeared in Le Nouvel Observateur (L’OBS), Jeune Afrique, The Guardian, IRIN News, The New York Times and NBC.News.com.
Damn, This Neighborhood Is Changing
Ric studied painting before switching to photojournalism (under Media Studies) because of a need to more realistically document his awareness of our shared humanity.
Experience has taught him that people are the same everywhere: we have similar fears, cry similar tears, celebrate loved ones and friends, encounter the sufferings of sickness and old age, and eventually mourn our dead. Such are the universality of issues which bond us as a world community.
Ric is committed to creating a visual journal that speaks of the resilience, normalcy, estrangement and injustice that characterizes the lives of people disparaged as Other, as he collects evidence of our shared humanity. His photographs are an expression of awareness – a highlight of the evidence he has gathered.
To view more of Ric Francis’s work please visit their website.