BRUCE DAVIDSON (PHOTOFILE) /ALLEMAND/ITALIEN

Photo Poche #14

by Davidson Bruce

In 1960, after spending an intense year photographing a notorious Brooklyn street gang called The Jokers, Bruce Davidson decided that he needed to get away from the tension, depression, and potential violence connected to that work. He took on a commission to photograph Marilyn Monroe during the making of John Houston's film The Misfits in the Nevada desert, and then traveled to London on a commission for The Queen magazine. Edited by Jocelyn Stevens, The Queen was a magazine devoted to British lifestyle and Davidson was charged, with no specific agenda, to spend a couple of months touring England and Scotland to build a photographic portrait of the two countries. England/Scotland 1960 offers a visionary insight into the very heart of English and Scottish cultures. Reflecting a postwar era in which the revolutions of the 1960s had hardly yet filtered into the mainstream, Davidson's photographs reveal countries driven by difference--the extremes of city and country life, of the landed gentry and the common people--and lucidly portrays the mood of these times in personal and provocative imagery that is as fresh today as it was in that time. Published in this book for the first time in its entirety, this is one of undiscovered gems of late 20th-century documentary photography.

Genres: Art, Photography

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Hákon Gunnarsson]

The cover of this book is quite misleading, one might expect landscape, or animals to be in the majority, but Davidson is best known for documentary photos of people, often in cities. The photo on the cover is taken in Wales, and is not typical of his work.

And yet, maybe it is. He is a versatile photographer that does give you a sense of place, and history in his work. Wether he is photographing a clown smoking, racial tension, or something else he does it in a way that one gets a feel for the place, and what's happening.

Some of the photos are quite dramatic, like the one of the clown smoking, others are sad, like the of the children looking out a window in East 100th Street, and there are even some funny ones like the one of the stroller "race".

The book begins with an introduction by Bruce Davidson himself, and while that is a bit choppy piece of writing, it does give one a good sense of who he is as an artist. He may not be very good writer, but he is a great photographer.

[Chris Schneider]

This is a small book, very simple. One photo per double truck with just a title. Yet, it is the right pace, with commendable reproductions for a small paperback book.

All the text is in French, so pouvoir lire le français.

Davidson's use of black and white is remarkable. His rich darks set off a bright area in nearly every photo that highlights a truth. Every composition seems to avoid tradition, setting himself off at an angle so objects are distorted, background lines are slanted. Personally I find his work inspiring.

[Digi M]

Masterful work.

I'd buy this book alone for the picture of the clown smoking. The absurdity of that photo. A midget clown, wearing a hat, clown face paint, holding flowers, looking tired and smoking a cigarette. It's one thing taking that photo, but the framing of it, is what amazes me. He places the clown on the bottom left of the frame, includes the big top, so you can sense that the clown is still most probably on duty, thereby making him look more tired or helping you empathize with his condition.

There are also beautiful portraits of couples, photos of the poor, old men in cafes, a lady reading a paper with the title "I love a phantom," nannies pulling babies in oversized prams, and other memorable photos.

Amazing.

[Mina Wagner]

Bruce Davidson's photos are wonderful as usual.
The problems are with the printing:
1) These images are very small, can't see details.
2) In the copy I got several images were not printed, the pages were blank.