The first time I saw work by
Bruce Davidson, a member of
Magnum, was February last year (2007). the
Fondation HCB in Paris was displaying his harlem
east 100th street (black and white photos here) series and his civil rights movement series
time of change. Two emblematic visual testimonies of 1960's America.
I recently joined
CIPNE. you know, to "network" and be "a part of community" and such. I have no idea how they did it, but they got Davidson.
He stood in front of a screen that projected his various series (the dwarf, Brooklyn gang, time of
change, coal miners, east 100th street, subway, central park, stills from movie misfits, Paris nature) and chatted. He shared stories. There are things that I would like to remember from his talk. I will put them in a list with bullet points. Because if it were me reading this, I would never pay attention to paragraphs.
From the mouth of b. davison:
- dude shot 100's of annual reports (note to self: stop being too proud)
- he shot the harlem series over 2 years, and his central park series over 2 -3 years (note to self: photography takes time)
- worked for LIFE magazine, then quit, looking to work on the things that mattered to him (note to self: you can be proud sometimes)
- his early career he shot with a leica.
- the harlem series he shot using a 4x5 ending up with over 4,000 negatives.
- he was asked why he used the 4 x 5 for this series. it affected me, his answer:
- the 4 x 5 is not a camera you can be quick with. you cannot escape the presence of the camera. the use of the 4x5 must be methodical, and requires complete collaboration from your subject.
- when the 4 x 5 came out, it was called the "miniature camera."
And the number one thing b. davidson said:
"To edit is to face your truth."
That quote deserves another blog. Loooooook out.
b. davidson himself:
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