David Reed

Background

David Reed was born on June 23, 1946 in London, United Kingdom.

Education

David Reed studied at London College of Printing, where he received a Higher Diploma in Creative Photography in 1975. In 1992, David earned a Ph.D. at Courtauld Institute of Art in London.

Career

David Reed started his career as a color technician for laboratories, including Agfa-Gevaert in 1975 - 1977. Then he worked for Paterson Products Ltd. (dealers in photographic darkroom equipment) as a writer for two years and was a London correspondent for Afterimage during 1978 - 1981.

In 1979 - 1980, David Reed was a commissioning editor for You and Your Camera at Eaglemoss Publications and in 1988 he became a freelance editor. Since 1992, Reed has been a freelance writer, editor, researcher, typesetter, and layout artist.

Achievements

• David Reed is highly famos as the author and editor of books The Rise of the Popular Magazine in Britain and the United States, 1880-1960, Lilies and Related Plants, In Search of the Orient, and Communism: An Illustrated History.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Lilies and Related Plants 1988-9 1988

Politics

David Reed described himself as a “Radical Democrat.”

Views

Quotations: “I come in two halves: my lower depths are largely venal; my higher aspirations are boringly spiritual. In other words, I write to make money that supports my historical research, which eventually ends up on the page."

"I prefer to write in the morning. I read through the previous paragraphs, editing as I go, which gets me into the flow of the words so that I keep going when I reach the end of the line. I frequently become very tense as I write, trying to sort out my thoughts, which leads to cups of tea, visits to the garden to potter, pacing up and down, before I am sufficiently calm to resume. I would love to be able to do something else, but I can’t. It’s a compulsion. It must be."

Membership

• fellow

  Smithsonian Institution

  1986 - 1987

Interests

• gardening, bird watching, cinema, computer graphics

Connections

David Reed married Lidia Maria Kesselring da Franca on January 29, 1987 but their marriage ended in 1995. After that he married Vasandra Devi Karthigesu, a research virologist, on April 14, 1997.

Spouse:

Vasandra Devi Karthigesu

ex-spouse:

Lidia Maria Kesselring da Franca