Description

Since 1981, Bruce Gilden has been roaming the streets of his hometown of New York City, capturing its characters and eccentricities with his confrontational, highly energetic style and exuberant vision. “Photographing exclusively in black and white, with a 35mm and a flash, I get very close to my subjects, working outside like an insider. My imagery is strong and precise as I try to show the thinking process of individuals walking on the street, caught in their thoughts, to reveal the spirit and soul of the city, going in depth beyond the clichés,” Gilden says.

To me, street photography is where you can smell the street, feel the dirt

Bruce Gilden
© Bruce Gilden | Magnum Photos

An iconic street photographer with a unique style, Bruce Gilden was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1946. Although he did attend some evening classes at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Bruce Gilden is to be considered substantially a self-taught photographer. Right from childhood, he has always been fascinated by the life on the streets and the complicated and fascinating motion it involves, and this was the spark that inspired his first long-term personal projects, photographing in Coney Island and then during the Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Over the years he has produced long and detailed photographic projects in New York, Haiti, France, Ireland, India, Russia, Japan and now in America. Bruce Gilden joined Magnum Photos in 1998. He lives in Beacon, New York.

© Bruce Gilden | Magnum Photos

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