Lucian Read is a multi-Emmy award-winning documentary director, cinematographer, producer, and former conflict photographer with a remarkable career spanning over two decades. Between 2004 and 2010, he spent an impressive three years embedded with US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, witnessing pivotal events of both wars firsthand.
As a director, Read has worked on several notable documentaries, including LIONS OF MESOPOTAMIA and PERSONAL COURAGE, as well as the National Geographic special OPERATION ARCTIC CURE. He was also the creator, show-runner, and director of photography for the EPIX documentary series AMERICA DIVIDED, executive-produced by Norman Lear.
Read has received multiple Emmy Awards for his investigative work, including awards in 2015, 2017, and 2019 for his reports on deaths on the US-Mexico border and the use of child labor in agriculture. He was also co-producer and principal cinematographer for the Primetime Emmy-winning first season of the climate change documentary series YEARS OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY.
In addition to his documentary work, Read has directed the feature documentary 99%, an official selection at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. His work as a producer for the news magazine program DAN RATHER REPORTS from the Afghan War was nominated for an Emmy in 2010.
As a cinematographer, Read has worked on several feature films, including YEAR ONE, TIME TO CHOOSE, LOST CITY OF THE MONKEY GOD, and MAURIZIO CATTELAN: BE RIGHT BACK. He has also worked on documentary series such as THE FOURTH ESTATE, DEADLIEST CATCH, and VICE on HBO.
Read's photojournalism work during the Iraq and Afghan Wars has been featured in publications such as Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, and Rolling Stone, earning him a World Press Photo Award in 2006. A collection of his work is part of the permanent collection at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia.
In 2019, a large format photography book titled All of Which I Saw was published, featuring his work from the Iraq and Afghan Wars. Read is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Explorers Club.
