Critical Focus

Critical Focus presents Harvey Richards' 1960s black and white photographs of California farm workers, the peace and civil rights movements, the environmental movements on the west coast. It also includes photos from his trip the the Soviet Union in 1961 with his wife Alice Richards and his son, Paul.

Harvey Richards began using a camera in the 1950s when he was in his mid-forties. He became a photographer after years of working as a machinist in the San Francisco shipyards, and as a merchant seaman sailing the Pacific, Atlantic and Mediterranean seas. Before moving to San Francisco in 1940, Richards also worked as a union organizer in Philadelphia and Boston. His photography began with a 35-millimeter still camera and a radical worker’s awareness of worldwide issues. He was a movement photographer, offering his films and photos to the social and political movements he supported to help organize their actions.

Paul Richards was born in San Francisco, CA in 1944 and grew up in Oakland. He was a student at UC Berkeley 1961-1966, BA in History. PhD in economic history from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1978. He retired from the construction industry in 2009. He is the owner of Estuary Press, established in 1986. He is the father of two, grandfather of 5 and is married to Nina Serrano since 1987,