#brucegilden

Bruce Gilden | Ocean City, Md, 2021 | portrait, color photography

Bruce Gilden | Ocean City, Maryland, 2021 | portrait, color photography

Bruce Gilden | Jacksonville, Mississippi, 2013 | portrait, color photography

Image Credit: Bruce Gilden NYC. USA. 1979 | Magnum Photos

In October of 2019, Bruce Gilden, after having a rediscovery of around 2000 rolls of images capturing New York City from the very beginning of his career with dates spanning from 1978 to 1984, decided to put together a recent project. I’m sure you know Bruce for his signature very in the face style close-up portraiture with a blaring flash that, and a majority of these images were shot with available light as they were from so early in his career that he had yet to acquire that iconic technique yet. It was only because of a move that he stumbled on these negatives and had realizations thus he named it Lost and Found.

Bruce Gilden is someone I have respected for a long time specifically due to his extremely in the face portraiture as I find it to be interesting to examine and bring light (literally) to a face whilst in the close-up while using high contrast and sharpness allowing the viewer to really breakdown the face and see into areas normally not able to be seen. This was why it was particularly interesting to see how at a point Gilden was testing the waters flashless - though his signature style of being right up next to the subject stayed constant from the beginning (in the chosen photo a wide lens was clearly in play meaning he was just feet away). I was stunned by the collection, especially in its featuring of a very wide range of subjects all on the streets of New York City that Gilden spoke so highly of whilst comparing it to present day when speaking on the book with the company he is represented by (Magnum Photos). The chosen image was so incredible to me because of how fake and unordinary the moment seemed to be.