Description

Bruce Gilden grew up in Brooklyn, making him no stranger to the city’s multi-faceted nature. His photographs are of the street poet variety with his images laid out in a stream-of-consciousness-type manner. Though the sequencing follows no particular, identifiable rhythm, they reflect the meandering eye of their maker. The photographs, made on the streets, at all times of day, reveal the human zoo that is New York.

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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