Richard Ellis (born 1960) is an American

news photographer Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...

and founder of the photo agency Newsmakers, which was later acquired by Getty Images.

Life and work

Ellis grew up in

West Palm Beach, Florida West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, Florida, Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lag ...

. He attended the

Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

in 1978, and the

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

from 1979–1982. He began his professional career in 1979 working as a freelance photographer for

United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ce ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

In 1984, he joined

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

, the British-based global news service, as a staff photographer in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

covering the

People Power Revolution The People Power Revolution, also known as the EDSA Revolution or the February Revolution, were a series of popular Demonstration (people), demonstrations in the Philippines, mostly in Metro Manila, from February 22 to 25, 1986. There was a ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and dozens of stories throughout

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

. In 1986, he became Reuters chief photographer for South Asia based in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

covering major news throughout the region, including the

Soviet–Afghan War The Soviet–Afghan War took place in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989. Marking the beginning of the 46-year-long Afghan conflict, it saw the Soviet Union and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic o ...

; he was the first western photographer allowed into

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

. Ellis went to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

for the Tiananmen protests. He hid on the first public bus allowed into the square following the massacre, which allowed him to provide the first pictures of the aftermath. Posted to China in 1989, he continued to cover post-Tiananmen China and was the last foreign correspondent to see

Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping also Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Teng Hsiao-p'ing; born Xiansheng (). (22 August 190419 February 1997) was a Chinese statesman, revolutionary, and political theorist who served as the paramount leader of the People's R ...

alive. He was nominated for a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

as part of the Reuters team covering Tiananmen. In 1991, Ellis, assigned to cover the first

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

, worked outside the controlled news pool traveling the desert of

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

, providing uncensored images. He was nominated for the Pulitzer a second time as part of the Reuters coverage during the war. In 1991 he established the Reuters UK photo service before moving to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

in 1992. While covering the collapse of the communist regime in Afghanistan, he captured images of the execution of a secret policeman. These resulted in his third nomination for a Pulitzer Prize, the first for his solo images. Ellis left Reuters in 1994 after exposing faked pictures shot by Russian photographers for an American news magazine. Returning to Washington, DC, in 1994, he worked as a freelance photographer for Sygma, covering the

presidency of Bill Clinton Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following his victory over Republican in ...

. While working in Washington, Ellis started the first Internet-based news photo agency called

Newsmakers ''Newsmakers'' () is a 2009 Russian action thriller film directed by Swedish director Anders Banke. It is a remake of the Hong Kong film ''Breaking News'' by Johnnie To. Plot Moscow police officer Smirnov sets out to capture the violent ganglead ...

in 1995. In 1999, Newsmakers was acquired by

Getty Images Getty Images Holdings, Inc. (stylized as gettyimages) is a visual media company and supplier of stock images, editorial photography, video, and music for business and consumers, with a library of over 477 million assets. It targets three mark ...

and became the foundation of the Getty Images News Service, which Ellis ran until 2001. Ellis continued with Getty Images in a variety of roles becoming Senior Vice President of Business Development in 2004. His photographic work has been published in many major magazines and newspapers worldwide. Ellis is the only individual to ever create a global news photo wire service. He currently lives with his wife and two daughters in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

References

Photography

'Sex for Sale' - Did Time Buy Some Phony Photos?

* [https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F0061FFE3B580C768CDDA90994DB494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fSubjects%2fP%2fProstitution Time Says Photographs of Moscow 'Child Prostitutes' Were Staged]
Getty Images expands editorial coverage to China

Forbes.com
* http://corporate.gettyimages.com/source/company/index.aspx?pageID=companyOfficers

* http://www.ellisphotos.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Richard 1960 births Living people American photographers People from West Palm Beach, Florida Artists from Charleston, South Carolina