Bruce Davidson's Subway on line ...

[dmr]

I've actually read this book some years ago at the local libe, and it looks like the complete series is now on line.

Street photographers and transit/rail fans will probably find this of interest.

http://www.art-dept.com/artists/davidson/portfolio/subway/newportfolio.html

Very gritty, and a few of the images can be a bit disturbing.

Enjoy! :)

({profanity} can't seem to use italics in the title!)

[Ducky]

Beautiful work, makes me glad I left the city. I would not like to be in the same car with some of those people let alone point a camera at them.

[ClaremontPhoto]

Thank you for the link.

I enjoyed the photos, but would not like to be there.

[John Lawrence]

I've been a fan of Davidson's work ever since I saw his series on East 100th street, so found this very interesting.

Thanks for posting.

[benlees]

I just returned this book to the library! It is a great book- it is too bad the web version doesn't have the essays. It was fun reading how Mr. Davidson prepared himself, mentally and physically, to go out every day on the subway.

[Merelyok]

http://www.art-dept.com/artists/davidson/portfolio/subway/061_Davidson.jpg

This shot just about sums it up.

Stunning.

[planetjoe]

Amazing. I realize that I'd seen several frames from Subway before without realizing they were part of this work. It's especially poignant that I recognize some of the same locations and vistas from my years in NYC.

And I feel I should point out, to those that might think this represents the City today: Davidson compiled this work on the late 1970s, at the nadir of the Subway's history. The City - and its subway system - is very different today, and is probably a subject too mundane to create a monograph from.

dmr, thanks for the link.


Cheers,
--joe.

[dmr]

Beautiful work, makes me glad I left the city.

That was one reason (among many) that I chose to relocate when I did. I left in the 70's, during the Beame years, as things were starting to get really ugly.

Ironically, the violent crime rate out here (Somewhere In Middle America<tm>) is now higher than in NYC! :(

[WoolenMammoth]

The City - and its subway system - is very different today, and is probably a subject too mundane to create a monograph from.


seriously. anyone inspired by this work to come here and shoot something similar will be grossly suprised by how sanitized this city has become. Hasn't looked like that in twenty years or more.

[nightfly]

Now you are more likely to be confronted by an angry wall street guy who didn't get his 5 million dollar bonus and is very testy.

[dmr]

Amazing. I realize that I'd seen several frames from Subway before without realizing they were part of this work. It's especially poignant that I recognize some of the same locations and vistas from my years in NYC.

Somehow I got the impression (from the text of the book, maybe) that much of this was shot on what we used to call the New Lots line, and some was on the Broadway El. Both of these served areas which were the most economically and socially depressed and the most blighted.

I never took the New Lots line, but I did occasionally ride back on the Broadway El and some of the scenes at the time, just west of East New York, were right out of a war zone! Burned-out boarded and abandoned buildings, trash-strewn vacant lots, abandoned cars sans wheels, that kind of thing. I always wondered how anybody could ever live under those conditions! :( It gives me the creepies just to think back to that. :(

I can remember the 'rents having a TOTAL COW when they once found out that I had spent the better part of a Sunday joyriding the subways with my new camera. "They will murder you for that camera! It must be worth $20!" :) Here's one of the only surviving photos from that shoot, scanned from an old print.

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?36499

There were many more, all which have vanished over the years. :(

You may have thought the city was Ugly, but I was in my twenties and the city was like Paris in the 30's. After growing up in the midwest I felt like I had moved to paradise in 1973.

My situation was just the opposite, moving out here to the midwest in the 70s. I had graduated college, was madly in love, had career and family desires, and also wanted a change just for the sake of change I guess.

I never thought the city was ugly, quite the contrary, but some of the situations were indeed ugly, and I wanted to get away from that.

I ended up liking it out here. The standard of living is very high and the cost of living is very low. People back east thought I was lying when I told of no lines at the DMV! :)

I never though of either NYC or Somewhere In Middle America<tm> as Paradise. Both have their good points and their bad points.

[aizan]

that webpage doesn't have the same content as the book. it's missing some photos, has some that weren't in the book, and is sequenced differently.

[Bob Michaels]

Reading this thread I detect the underlying thought that many believe the great social changes are history and there is no more in the present worth documenting for future consumption.

I suggest that everyone get their *ss out there today and document what is happening in 2009 that may be viewed in the future as something significant.

Few of us believe we will be the Bruce Davidson's of 2035. But what so we think Bruce Davidson was believing 25-30 years ago when he was photographing?

The world has too many spectators and needs more participants.

[helenhill]

Bruce Davidson / LOVE his 'CIRCUS' book.....

[Nh3]

My dream is do a project in new york.

I will call it simply, New York Hysteria.

[WoolenMammoth]

tough project.

If there was ever a city whose residents dont give a F about anything, its this one. Hysteria is carefully measured and dispensed...

[sepiareverb]

Thanks for that!! Brings back some memories for me- though mine are from about 5-10 years later. Much of the subway still looked like this though.

[Nh3]

I'm speculating but I think Davidson was inspired by the movie The Warriors.

[35mmdelux]

who said the suburbs sucked?