Bruce Davidson (photographer)
Bruce Davidson (born September 5, 1933 in Oak Park , Illinois , USA ) is an American photographer .
Life
Davidson started taking photos when he was 10 years old. In 1949 he won the Kodak National High School Competition. He then did an apprenticeship and also studied photography . After completing his military service, he worked for a short time as a freelance photographer for LIFE , in 1958 he was accepted by Magnum , a year later as a full member.
reception
In 1963 Davidson was dedicated to a solo exhibition in the " Museum of Modern Art " in New York , which includes recordings from his series "Civil Rights Movement" and "The Dwarf" ("The Dwarf"). They show, for example, Malcolm X , protest marches under Martin Luther King or the way of life of a circus clown behind the scenes.
In 1966 he received a scholarship from the "National Endowment for the Arts", after which he spent two years in Spanish Harlem in New York. There he photographed life in and around a block of flats, the resulting images appeared in 1970 under the title " East 100th Street ". Fred Ritchin described this project as "a major work in the history of documentary photography". In doing so, Davidson got to know the residents and complied with their demands. He didn't want to take snapshots and possibly scare people away, but waited for them to come up to him and take part in the recording themselves. “They called me the 'picture man'. (...) I let things take their course, I was available. They said, 'Take a picture of me.' I took the picture. (...) I came when I came. They got their pictures and I got mine. I saw my recordings hanging in every house on the street. ”- Bruce Davidson
His first series in color was devoted to the New York subway. The recordings published under the title “Subway” (1986) show the diversity of the passengers. Families, businessmen, homeless people or tourists became the focus of his pictures. Davidson wanted to depict the individual personalities who use a mode of transport every day that for many is the epitome of anonymity and everyday life.
His illustrated book “Portraits”, published by Aperture in 1999, shows photos of well-known personalities such as Arthur Miller , Marilyn Monroe , Leonard Bernstein and Roman Polański .
In 2006 the illustrated book “Before the Moment - England and Scotland, 1960” (German: “England / Scotland 1960”, Steidl (Verlag) , Göttingen) was published. It contains a selection of 6,000 Leica images that were taken during a journey of several months through England and Scotland on behalf of the magazine "The Queen". The collaboration between Davidson and Steidl continued with the publication of more books.
From May to August 2016, a retrospective exhibition of the photographer can be seen in the Fundación Mapfre Barcelona , which is exclusively dedicated to his black and white photos and for which a 320-page catalog will be published by Aperture .
bibliography
Photo books
- East 100th Street. Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1970.
- Photographs. Agrinde Publications, New York 1978 - ISBN 0-671-40067-3
- Subway. Aperture, New York 1986 (republished by Steidl , Göttingen 2011 - ISBN 978-3-86930-294-2 )
- Bruce Davidson - photo files. Thames and Hudson, London 1990 - ISBN 978-0-500-41072-1
- Central Park. Aperture, New York 1995 - ISBN 978-0-89381-625-4
- Brooklyn gang. Twin Palms Publishers, Santa Fe 1998 - ISBN 978-0-944092-50-7
- Portraits. Aperture, New York 1999 - ISBN 0-89381-851-8 .
- Isaac Bashevis Singer and the Lower East Side. Terrace Books, Madison 2004 - ISBN 978-0-299-20624-6 .
- I Grandi Fotografi di Magnum Photos: Bruce Davidson. Hachette, Milan 2005
- England / Scotland 1960. Steidl, Göttingen 2006 - ISBN 3-86521-127-5 .
- Circus - significantly expanded new publication of the volume The Dwarf and the Clyde Beatty Circus - published by Steidl, Göttingen 2007 - ISBN 978-3-86521-366-2
- Outside - Inside - very voluminous (3 volumes, 800 pages) strong review of his best photographs from 1954 to 2009 - published by Steidl, Göttingen 2010 - ISBN 978-3-86521-908-4
- Black & White - 5-volume collection of works (700 pages) of his black and white works. Contains the volumes Circus (1958), Brooklyn Gang (1959), Time of Change (1961–1965), East 100th Street (1966–1968) and Central Park (1992–1995). Steidl, Göttingen 2012 - ISBN 978-3-86930-432-8
- In color. Steidl, Göttingen 2014 - ISBN 978-3-86930-564-6
- Two American Photographers in Britain and Ireland (with Paul Caponigro ). Yale University Press, New Haven 2014 - ISBN 978-0-300-20149-9
- Subway. Steidl, Göttingen 2015, 2nd edition - ISBN 978-3-86930-294-2
- Los Angeles 1964 . Steidl, Göttingen 2015 - ISBN 978-3-86930-789-3
- Nature of Los Angeles 2008-2013 . Steidl, Göttingen 2015 - ISBN 978-3-86930-814-2
- Survey . Aperture, 2016 - ISBN 978-1-59711-377-9
literature
- Vicki Goldberg : Bruce Davidson: Magnum Legacy. Prestel Verlag , 2016 - ISBN 978-3-7913-8135-0
Web links
- Literature by and about Bruce Davidson in the catalog of the German National Library
- Bruce Davidson in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Author page by Bruce Davidson published by Steidl Verlag
- Bruce Davidson at Google Arts & Culture
- Documentation on magnum photos
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bruce Davidson's biography in Chris Beetle's Fine Photographs ( Memento of the original from December 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Information on the retrospective exhibition in Barcelona ( Memento of the original from June 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Davidson, Bruce |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American photographer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 5, 1933 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oak Park , Illinois |