Bruce Davidson: A Lifetime with Leica

[Moriturii]

Fantastic story, superlative pictures. This guy could add a picture or two to the "Show Me Your Leica M" thread.

http://vimeo.com/45721468

[canetsbe]

really some great images. and talk about using your cameras....

[pan]

Hi,

I watch only the begining of this film but the first pictures show are made with a 4x5 camera that he used for some projects.
I think it's not clean from Leica to do that...

Cyril

[Calzone]

Originally Posted by pan

Hi,

I watch only the begining of this film but the first pictures show are made with a 4x5 camera that he used for some projects.
I think it's not clean from Leica to do that...

Cyril

BD did considerable amount of work using large format. His work documenting poverty on East 100th Street in 1969 was with an 8x10 view camera.

Cal

[TennesseJones]

Fascinating man. Thanks for sharing.

[Archlich]

3:21 - A Bessa!

[John Lawrence]

Very interesting.

Thanks for posting.

John

[BlackXList]

Fantastic video, and absolutely inspiring photographs.

Just one question though, does wearing a Leica cap add to or detract from the famous Leica "invisibility"?

[Calzone]

Originally Posted by PKR

Hi Cal;

I recall seeing a shot of Davidson using a tripod mounted Linhof Technika published in "Aperture" along with the E. 100 St photos. It's been some time and I could be wrong. I don't think he was using an 8x10 as the DOF in the portraits look like they were done with a shorter FL lens than would have been used on an 8x10.

"He began the two-year project in 1966 using a large format 4 x 5 inch view camera mounted on a tripod instead of a hand-held camera in order to avoid being perceived as an ''intru*der'' who seized images without interacting with his subjects".

http://dating-au.com/bruce-davidson/

Earlier this year I went to Milk Gallery to hear Bruce Davidson speak. I was particularly interested in his work on East 100th Street because I currently live just a block away. I'm pretty certain he stated that he used a 8x10, but I could be in error.

As far as time line goes in 1966 Bruce Davidson released "Welsh Miners." I know this because I own two vintage Bruce Davidson prints that have the Magnum stamp on the reverse and are both dated 1967.

I believe on the Magnum site its states that East 100th Street folio came out in 1969 and that kind of fits your time line for when the shots were taken.

BTW the two prints I own are the two with the children: one is of a little girl doing this odd gesture in front of an ancient tombstone; and the second is of a little boy with a Teddy Bear and a doll in a stroller with the mine looming in the background.

Cal

[muser53]

Thanks for posting the video. Here is a print interview along with some photos you all might enjoy.

http://blog.leica-camera.com/photogr...me-with-leica/

[Calzone]

Originally Posted by PKR

Davidson has a large collection of cameras, so it's possible he used both 4x5 and 8x10 on E.100 St. The effect (big camera on a tripod) would be the same. So, we may both be correct.

I just dislike the "had to be done with a Leica" thing. I've seen lighting done by Joe McNally where lots of Nikon SB series lights were placed in a shot to Nikon's delight. But what they didn't show were several Elinchrom Rangers used in the lighting mix. The viewer is led to believe the lighting was done with Nikon Speed Lights alone. It's marketing BS.

I agree that Bruce Davidson has a rather large collection of cameras. Funny thing is when some my friends in the B&H used department inquired about some of the gear I secured from them it came out in conversation that I made some big trades with cameras to an art dealer friend for the two Bruce Davidson Prints I now own. THey remarked that they knew him because he use to go visit them all the time. LOL.

Bruce Davidson is a fascinating and impressive man, and I feel fortunate to own some of his work. This man was really part of history, and I love that he was not only a shooter, but also a printer. Interesting to note that on the Magnum website there are a few samples of color shots mixed in in the Welsh Miner series.

The facts remain that although Bruce Davidson shot Leicas is that he also shot large format.

Cal

[Calzone]

Originally Posted by muser53

Thanks for posting the video. Here is a print interview along with some photos you all might enjoy.

http://blog.leica-camera.com/photogr...me-with-leica/

Interesting backstory about the two men in the subway shot that Bruce Davidson remarked about at Milk Gallery. Bruce Davidson was used as a decoy by two plains clothes detectives and wore 3 Leicas around his neck. The guy with the gun is actually NYPD.

Cal

[kingqueenknave]

Originally Posted by Calzone

Interesting backstory about the two men in the subway shot that Bruce Davidson remarked about at Milk Gallery. Bruce Davidson was used as a decoy by two plains clothes detectives and wore 3 Leicas around his neck. The guy with the gun is actually NYPD.

Cal

I always thought the Canon T-90 was his camera of choice for the subway project.

[leicapixie]

The Subway pix was said by BD to be Leicaflex with strobe. If anyone has the book, it might say. i have always liked his work.
The best thing about most of his American shoots were all around NYC and within +20 odd minutes of his apartment!
The cameras are tools. A certain Magnum photographer who is often seen using a Leica, fished out a Nikon DSLR when we were together, noticing this cute young lady with boots! I was faster, he was sharper..

[kingqueenknave]

Originally Posted by leicapixie

The Subway pix was said by BD to be Leicaflex with strobe. If anyone has the book, it might say. i have always liked his work.
The best thing about most of his American shoots were all around NYC and within +20 odd minutes of his apartment!
The cameras are tools. A certain Magnum photographer who is often seen using a Leica, fished out a Nikon DSLR when we were together, noticing this cute young lady with boots! I was faster, he was sharper..

Cameras are tools? That's just crazy.

Some T-90 references, could be wrong though.

http://www.artnet.com/galleries/exhi...911&cid=108197

http://www.brianappelart.com/art_wri...s_new_york.htm

[semilog]

My memory may be faulty here, but if I remember correctly Davidson used Olympus OM gear, not Leica, for his Subway work.

[raytoei@gmail.com]

Originally Posted by muser53

Thanks for posting the video. Here is a print interview along with some photos you all might enjoy.

http://blog.leica-camera.com/photogr...me-with-leica/

"
Q: Can you share the story of…
A: I’d like to back up to the question “when did Leica come into your life?” It came into my life when I was a student at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). At that time, in the early 1950s, there were 140 students in the photography department, including two women. Of course, I was smitten by one of them and I was trying to court her. I met her at the women’s dorm in the living room sitting on a couch. She said, “I want to show you something.” She ran up to her room and came down with this huge book of photographs called The Decisive Moment, a collection of images by Cartier-Bresson, and we sat together looking through all of the amazing photographs. I had never seen anything like it. She said to me, “I really love this photographer.” So, I said to myself, “If I could take pictures like this guy maybe she will love me too.” So, I went out and spent all my monthly allowance on a used Leica. I actually tried to imitate the imagery of Cartier-Bresson. Of course, it didn’t work. The young female student ran off with a history professor, and I was left with Cartier-Bresson. That’s what started me off. I began to take street photographs."


lol

[Haigh]

Thanks for that one. The images are terrific.

[BobYIL]

I think this clip by Leica at youtube stinks advertisement. Put a Leica cap on Mr. Davidson's head and show his Leicas as if they were the ticket to ride to become Bruce Davidson.

I know his photographs since the '70s. Mr. Davidson used a wide array of cameras besides Leica; 4X5, 8X10, SLRs, even 6x12 for his Central Park series. Imagine a young boy of 10 asking his mother to build him a darkroom! He is one of the very few Magnum members who had an academic build up to become a photographer and being at home with any format; very rare... He concentrated the majority of his professional carrier to photograph the States; as he's known more of his "documentary" side.

Let's note that those masters who made Leica what it was have used other cameras too. Actually their greatness have little to do with the use of Leicas, more to do with their talents and capabilities. Any camera used to sing in their hands... I find it a little sad to accentuate Leica as being the center element in such clips, most of the amateurs watching them tend to be "conditioned" to believe the greatest factor behind of making a Bruce Davidson was Leica.. Schmeica! I wish there could be 10 more clips showing his photography only without mentioning about the brands of his cameras.

[jippiejee]

Originally Posted by BobYIL

Let's note that those masters who made Leica what it was have used other cameras too. Actually their greatness have little to do with the use of Leicas, more to do with their talents and capabilities. Any camera used to sing in their hands... I find it a little sad to accentuate Leica as being the center element in such clips, most of the amateurs watching them tend to be "conditioned" to believe the greatest factor behind of making a Bruce Davidson was Leica..

But he does say this himself when asked how he could document these gangs so well:

"A: I think got in with them because I had a Leica. It was small, it was quiet and discrete, and it was simple. I would take pictures of them and then I would bring the pictures back to show them. I didn’t judge them. I wasn’t a social worker. I just photographed the mood of these teenagers — a street gang. "

[Moriturii]

Originally Posted by jippiejee

But he does say this himself when asked how he could document these gangs so well:

"A: I think got in with them because I had a Leica. It was small, it was quiet and discrete, and it was simple. I would take pictures of them and then I would bring the pictures back to show them. I didn’t judge them. I wasn’t a social worker. I just photographed the mood of these teenagers — a street gang. "

And? His series of pictures of the gangs is hardly his whole body of work, therefore Leica not his main camera of choice, it was just a camera that was appropriate for that situation (imagine that, just a tool, huh..), let's not make a feather into a hen here. There is a reason why he didn't use Leicas when he shot his 6x12, 8x10 (etc etc) pictures...

[kosta_g]

It an interesting albeit advertising read. I do very much like Bruce's work (regardless of what he used to take it) It's his images I find interesting at the end of the day.

[jsrockit]

I saw him the other day using a Holga in the park!

[rolleistef]

the use of a view camera was the whole point of East 100 street. He was told he was mad to go and take photographs there, but he just stayed for two weeks meeting people before he could come at their home and take photographs of them. And the subway shots were made with Nikon SLRs, and a flash.
However maybe the leica spirit is more than just a camera?

[Calzone]

Funny how a photographer can become so famous that he/she becomes a myth as well as a legend.

Cal