Bruce Davidson (b. 1933) began photography at the age of ten in Oak Park, Illinois. As a youth, Davidson was given the freedom to explore the streets of the city alone with his camera and in 1949, at the age of 16, he won first prize in the Kodak National High School Competition. He went on to attend the Rochester Institute of Technology and Yale University. His college thesis pictured the emotions of football players behind the scenes of the game, and it was published in Life magazine in October 1955. Later he was drafted into the army and was stationed in Paris where he met Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the four founders of the renowned international cooperative photo agency, Magnum Photos. After military service, in 1957, Davidson worked as a freelance photographer for Life Magazine and in 1958 became a member of Magnum Photos.

Davidson continued to photograph extensively from 1958 to 1961 creating such bodies of work as The Dwarf, Brooklyn Gang, and the Freedom Rides. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1962 to photograph what became a four-year documentation of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1963 the Museum of Modern Art in New York presented his work in a one-man show that included, among others, these historically important images.

In 1966, Davidson was awarded the first grant in photography from the National Endowment for the Arts, and spent two years documenting one block in East Harlem. Harvard University Press published this work in 1970 under the title East 100th Street, which is considered a modern classic and now a much-coveted collector's item. It was included in the recently published 101 Best Photography Books. The work became an exhibition that same year at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

He extended his view of the city with Subway, which explored New York's subterranean world, using color to express mood. Completed a decade later, Central Park was a four-year encounter with the convergence of humanity, nature, and the city that grew into an epic homage.

In 2002, St. Ann's Press published a new and expanded edition of East 100th Street. On this occasion, Davidson made new prints from his original negatives and has also included photographs that did not appear in the 1970 edition.

Bruce Davidson is a 1998 recipient of an Open Society Institute Individual Fellowship. With this he went back to East Harlem after thirty years to document the essence of revival and rehabilitation in a neighborhood once considered the worst block in New York City. To complete this exploration, Davidson presented a community slide show and hosted a forum where members of the neighborhood participated.

In addition to his many publications and exhibitions as a still photographer, Davidson has also directed two short films. Living off the Land, a half hour documentary on a father/son relationship and their life as scavengers in the New Jersey meadows, was shown on CBS and received the "Critics Award" from the American Film Institute. Isaac Singer's Nightmare and Mrs. Pupko's Beard, is a fictional tale based on one of Mr. Singer's writings. It won first prize in the fiction category at the American Film Festival and was shown on Public Television.

Davidson continues to work as an editorial photographer and his work has appeared regularly in publications around the world for over fifty years. His photographs have been acquired by many major museums and private collectors worldwide, including Topan's "Masters of Photography"; Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum Ludwig Koln, Germany; the George Eastman House, Rochester, New York; and the Smithsonian, and the International Center of Photography.

He lives in New York with his wife and has two daughters.

Quotes about Bruce Davidson's Work

"Bruce Davidson is an artist who uses a camera. He is a master of composition. He knows how to use light and shadows. He arranges his 'subject-matter' in a suggestive and evocative manner. He senses things others have no time or inclination to bother with, and he is driven to set down before others what he senses, by no means do these photographs take advantage of New York ghetto people, turn them into objects - objects of pity, objects for minds bent on the sensational, objects to be analyzed and labeled and categorized. We are shown, instead, the daily effort that human beings make to get by, to find food and love and yes, a kind of meaning in the midst of ruinous social and economic circumstances."

- New Republic (from the back of East 100th Street)

"Few contemporary photographers give us their observations so unembellished - so free of apparent craft or artifice - The presence that fills these pictures seems the presence of the life that is described, scarcely changed by its transmutation into art."

- John Szarkowski, former Director of the Photography Department at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, who gave Davidson two solo shows.

"Bruce Davidson's career in still photography can be understood best as a series of essays in self-definition and discovery. Through the exploration of contemporary life in all its variety, his early innocence has evolved into a sympathetic realism."

- Henry Geldzahler

Publications

Bruce Davidson Photographs (Simon & Schuster in 1979), is a collection of twenty years of work with a text that traces his artistic development from boyhood to maturity. The images come from such projects as "The Welsh Miners", "Los Angeles", "Sicily", "New Jersey Meadows", "Cafeteria" and "Topless Restaurant". This work was exhibited at the International Center of Photography, The Walker Art Museum and the Museum de Tokyo in Paris and has traveled worldwide.

Subway (Aperture 1986), is a series of color images made on the New York subways over the course of a year. The project was partially supported by Davidson's second National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship from 1980. Large dye transfer prints were exhibited at the International Center of Photography, The Smithsonian Institute and the Museum Rattu in Arles, France.

Central Park (Aperture 1995), is a series of photographs made over a four-year period. These images portray the urban park environment through landscape, nature and humanity. The body of work was exhibited at the Burden Gallery in New York, the Parco Gallery in Tokyo and the New York Historical Association.

Brooklyn Gang (Twin Palms 1998), is a collection of images from 1959, of a teenage gang in Brooklyn, New York. Included is an extensive interview with one of the gang members by Emily Haas. The text reveals the emotional climate of the times. This group of images was shown as a solo exhibit at the International Center of Photography in New York and the Rose Gallery in California. The book was chosen as the "Best" picture book of 1998 by the Village Voice and the New York Times gave a recent gang reunion a front page write up.

Portraits (Aperture 1999), is a selection from Davidson's archive. The images are diverse and revealing, creating a portrait of a past era. Portrayed are some extraordinary personalities including John Cage, Leonard Bernstein, Marilyn Monroe, Fannie Lou Hamer, Kiki Smith and Jack Kerouac.

Time of Change, Civil Rights Photographs 1961-1965 (St. Ann's Press, 2002) This unprecedented collection of images, combined with a foreword from one of the most charismatic and courageous voices of the Civil Rights Movement (Congressman John Lewis) and an essay from Deborah Willis, one of the leading scholars of African-American identity in photography, makes "Time of Change" not only an exceptional document of our nation's past, but one of today's most significant and relevant books. It will undoubtedly enlighten us about our present time and inform us of our future.

East 100th Street (St. Ann's Press, 2003) Long out of print, this is a re-issue of a the classic book of photographs of East 100th Street in New York City taken by Bruce Davidson in the mid 1960's. This re-print includes over 20 never before seen images not included in the original publication. Bruce Davidson's portrait of the people of East 100th Street is a powerful statement of the dignity and humanity that is in all people.

Subway (St. Ann's Press, 2004) This is the newly expanded re-issue of Bruce Davidson's book of color images made on the New York subways. Containing an additional 42 previously unseen photographs, this release captures the vitality of life in New York's underground.