Biography of the Photographers

Linda G. Rich was born on August 9, 1949 in Cleveland, Ohio. She received a B.A. in Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1971, and went on to work for a local television network as a production crew member and photographer. After receiving an M.F.A. in Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1975, she moved to Maryland to accept a teaching position at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore.

One of Rich’s first excursions into Baltimore was to view the “I Am An American Day” parade, which passes through a number of East Baltimore neighborhoods. She was immediately taken by the charm of the streets, fascinated by the pristinely maintained row houses, white marble steps at their entrances, beautifully painted window screens, and other symbols of the community’s identity.

It wasn’t until fall of 1976, while Rich was teaching a course on social documentary photography at MICA, that her impressions of Baltimore began to mold the idea of the East Baltimore Documentary Photography Project. It began as a class project that aimed to document the lives of East Baltimoreans. With the help of Joan C. Netherwood and Elinor B. Cahn, two "adult learner" students in Rich's class, the project expanded beyond the classroom.

By the summer of 1977, the three women were working full time on the project. While the group received a number of grants to pay for materials, the photographers’ time was entirely donated. The project spanned until 1980, and the book "Neighborhood: A State of Mind," which contains photos and excerpts of interviews from the project, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in November of 1981.

Neighborhood: A State of Mind by Linda Rich, Joan Netherwood, and Elinor Cahn.