Bruce Gilden
Born 1946 New York.
Bruce Gilden is a street photographer that I admire, but I doubt I could emulate. Although, wish I could.
If you want to find Bruce Gilden you will most likely find him on the streets, and he is equally at home photographing people in the UK, France or Japan, as he is his native New York.
The one word that describes Bruce Gilden’s work: “close”. Closeness is his trademark he is often copied, but there is more to him that just an aggressive nature and a flash.
He has been influenced Diane Arbus and William Klien, and this is shown in his early work Coney Island.
(http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&ALID=2K7O3RQ7TLX#/SearchResult&ALID=2K7O3RQ7TLX&VBID=2K1HZS61EK8FG&POPUPIID=2K7O3RRFYQO&POPUPPN=29 accessed 6th August 2015).
Coney Island is not a beautiful body of work (similar to Martin Parr’s work in New Brighton), but it is realistic it shows what life was like there in 1970’s. It remind me if my experiences at Copacabana Beach in Rio just a few weeks ago. I had expected the rose-tinted view of models everywhere and was confronted by overweight families showing more flesh than you would like.
Looking at Gilden’s work, he is more than just an aggressive New Yorker, with a flash. I feel a sense of engagement and animation in his photographs like I’m there I can feel the moment he has captured. His shots are from a low angle/point of view; that immerses you into the scene.
David Gibson in his book “The Street Photographers Manual” ends a brief biography on Gilden describing one of Gilden’s photographs “It’s not beautiful, but it’s real” I feel this sums Gilden up correctly.
References:
http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53ZS6V#/CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53ZS6V&POPUPIID=2K7O3R20RE8&POPUPPN=16 accessed 6th August 2015