Fred Ritchin is dean emeritus of the International Center of Photography (ICP) School. Ritchin was also the founding director of the Documentary Photography and Photojournalism Program at the School of ICP and was appointed dean in 2014. Prior to joining ICP, Ritchin was professor of photography and imaging at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and co-director of the NYU/Magnum Foundation Photography and Human Rights educational program. He has worked as the picture editor of "The New York Times Magazine" (1978–1982) and of "Horizon" magazine, executive editor of "Camera Arts" magazine (1982–1983), Ritchin has written and lectured internationally about the challenges and possibilities implicit in the digital revolution.
Life and work.
In 1994 and 1995, he conducted a research project for "The New York Times" on how to transform the print newspaper into a multimedia publication. Ritchin co-founded PixelPress in 1999, serving as director of an organization that has created multimedia documentary and photojournalism projects online, and collaborated with humanitarian organizations such as UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA, Crimes of War, and the Rwanda Project.
Ritchin is a prolific author and curator, focusing on digital media and the rapid changes occurring in photography. He wrote the first book on the impact of digital imaging on photography, "In Our Own Image: The Coming Revolution in Photography" (Aperture, 1990, 1999, 2010), which was followed by two more books on the future of imaging in the digital era, "After Photography" (W. W. Norton, 2008), and "Bending the Frame: Photojournalism, Documentary, and the Citizen" (Aperture, 2013). Ritchin has contributed articles and essays to numerous books and publications such as "Aperture", "Camera Arts", "Mother Jones", "The New York Times", "Time" LightBox, and the "Village Voice". His curatorial projects include Contemporary Latin American Photographers at the Burden Gallery, What Matters Now: Proposals for a New Front Page at Aperture Gallery, An Uncertain Grace: The Photographs of Sebastião Salgado at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Bodies in Question at the New York Photo Festival.
Ritchin is also the founding director of PixelPress, an organization that has published multimedia projects experimenting with virtual and non-linear photojournalistic and documentary work. PixelPress has collaborated with many humanitarian organizations on issues such as a global attempt to end polio, progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the promulgation and explanation of the crimes of war, and the photographic vision of children in a Rwandan orphanage. PixelPress also featured an online publication combining documentary and new media strategies, including a collaboration with photographer Gilles Peress for "The New York Times"' first multimedia piece, entitled "Bosnia: Uncertain Paths to Peace", which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in public service in 1997.