Watch: Bruce Gilden on New Yorkers and Childhood Inspirations
In a short film the photographer explains the crucial role of self criticism and perseverance when working on the streets
Magnum Photos’ first online education course, The Art of Street Photography, sees seven Magnum photographers with renowned and distinct practices exploring the breadth of street photography. The Magnum collective has a long history in the genre, with co-founder Henri Cartier-Bresson’s seminal concept of ‘the decisive moment’ setting an early precedent for the collective’s exploration of ‘the street’.
Through a curriculum of ten in-depth, on-demand video lessons Bruce Gilden, Martin Parr, Susan Meiselas, Richard Kalvar, Carolyn Drake, Peter van Agtmael and Mark Power share their advice to photographers of all levels, alongside focused input from industry experts.
To celebrate the launch of The Art of Street Photography, we collaborated with NOWNESS on a special series of three short films as part of their ‘Photographer in Focus’ series, exploring the practices of three of the course instructors: Bruce Gilden, Susan Meiselas, and Martin Parr.
Many of Bruce Gilden’s most famed street photography projects have been made in his hometown of New York. In this short film the photographer explains how he set out to ‘attack New York City photographically’, the role of intuition, and the crucial importance of finding the right characters in making strong work. He also delves into his childhood to understand his taste in photographic subjects.
The Art of Street Photography course is available now. You can find out more, and sign up, here. You can watch the course trailer below. You can enter the Heatwave! competition for the chance to win access to the Learn course and a new Fujifilm X-T100 camera, here.
