Exclusive video: Bruce Gilden goes "head on" in Derby
When Magnum photographer Bruce Gilden was commissioned for this year's Format International Photo Festival in Derby, BJP went behind the scenes and filmed the legendary street photographer at work and can now present an exclusive 12-minute look at Gilden's work
Author: Olivier Laurent
03 Mar 2011 Tags: Format11Magnum photosStreetBjp
"Before I went to Derby, I was speaking with my good friend Martin Parr, who told me I would have a tough time finding any pictures. When I went, I was quite apprehensive, also because there's not much going on in town. There are characters there - people I'd like to photograph. but you can't just jump at all of them (...) But when you work on a commission you have to force yourself to take pictures, because it's a commission. You have to work. You take pictures you may not usually take. Anyway, I get home and I get the films developed and it turned out that I had a lot of good pictures."
A member of Magnum Photos since 1998, Bruce Gilden is best known for his uncompromising, in-your-face approach to street photography, and in November, he brought that approach to Derby, UK, as part of a commission for the Format International Photography Festival 2011.
During the seven-day commission, called Bruce Gilden: Head On, BJP's news and online editor Olivier Laurent was invited to follow the street photographer in his work. And now, as the Format Festival opens for one month, BJP is able to exclusively present this 12-minute look at Gilden's work in Derby, which will also be shown alongside Gilden's images at the Derby Museum and Art Gallery.
Born in 1946, Gilden was inspired to become a photographer by Michaelangelo Antonioni's film Blowup, which he saw in 1968 while studying sociology at Penn State. He got a camera, enrolled in evening classes at the School of Visual Arts in New York, and was soon shooting on the streets. Or actually, the beach - his first major project was on Coney Island, New York's infamous resort. 'I don't know what the definition of street photography is, but for me that was where it all started,' he says. 'I narrow it (street photography) down to people who hunt people.'
By 1981 he really was on the New York streets, and he's continued to shoot them ever since, as well as capturing New Orleans' Mardi Gras street festival, voodoo rites in Port-au-Prince Haiti in the mid-1980s, Japan's little known Yakuza underworld and rural Irish horseracing fans. He joined Magnum in 1998, and became a full member in 2002.
He has, as the agency puts it, 'established an expressive and theatrical style that presented the world as a vast comedy of manners', but this style didn't arrive fully formed. He started out shooting with available light, for example, but later adopted a flash to 'visualise the anxiety, the stress and the energy of the streets'. Now he's so used to putting the flash in his left hand and the camera in his right that they feel like natural extensions of his body.
Last month, BJP caught up with Gilden. We asked him about his experience shooting in England. Listen to what he had to say:
He tells BJP that a good street photographer has to know itself. "You have to know who you are; know how you feel about the world; know what you're interested in photographing," he says. "When I started photography, the quote that struck me was by Robert Capa - 'if it's not good enough, you're not close enough.' So the older I get, the closer I get. I want to rip, almost, the gut of somebody's inside, because then I know I've gotten something. That's me. Also, when I was younger, I was a very good athlete, so I incorporated my athleticism into my style - because I handhold my flash and with people moving and you moving, you have to have very good dexterity to get the light where you want it."
Listen to Bruce Gilden talk about the qualities of a good street photographer:
But for Gilden, "street photography is the hardest form of photography," he tells BJP. "You have to be physical, you have to be fast, you have to think fast. People are moving across your frame. There are a lot of things you have to control and you can't be thinking when you're out there - all of the thinking has to be done beforehand. You have to act and react. But just because you take a camera on the street, that doesn't mean you're a street photographer."
Listen to Bruce Gilden talk about what makes good street photography:
Bruce Gilden: Head On is on show at the Format International Photography Festival 2011 'Right Here Right Now: Exposures from the public Realm', which takes place 4 March - 3 April 2011 in various venues across Derby and beyond. For more information visit www.formatfestival.com.
BJP will be providing continuous coverage of the festival until 06 March - find all related articles on our dedicated page here.
Comments
Thanks BJP. Good insight. No embelishment.
With his "Carte blanche" - what does he do?
Apart from the 2:29 "DIstinguished man"
He shoots:-
04:14 Someone struggling with a walking stick
05:33 Woman hobbling and another stuggling with walking stick
0605 Woman hobbling
0655 Large ankled woman he calls a "character" before having to pacify her by promising not to use that image after the event.
1056 Another woman in difficulty with walking stick minding her own business.
Looks very much like he causes distress by taking pictures without consent, picking on the weakest people who probably could do with keeping their self respect.
If I was from Derby, I know what I would think of him and his "vision". Derby deserves better as they made the effort to put the festival on.
Good film.
Arrogant, Rude... Pot Shotter....
What a deeply unpleasant man Mr. Gilden is.....Frankly, I'm surprised he didn't get a punch in the mouth, he deserves it....His whole approach to photography is amateurish and haphazard and he takes himself far to seriously.....What in God's name is so stressful about wandering around the streets taking snapshots....Chill out man.....He does the craft of photography a major disservice.....
seriously!
"street photography is the hardest form of photography," He wants to try local press photography, 10 people and a big cheque....make it a picture people want to look at, then go to your next job and its 12 people with a big cheque. ( i do get other interesting jobs!)
Brings up interesting issues relating to privacy and obtaining permission to photograph. Have those people who have been photographed effectively given permission for their image to be displayed (for instance, in a forthcoming exhibition) simply because they have not objected to having their photograph taken? Does this only work because he is a 'famous' photographer?
He is probably lucky to still be in one piece
I wonder if he went around Derby City Centre photographing 'interesting characters' on a saturday afternoon after Derby County had lost at football? If he had, and using his jump out at 'em technique, it might have made a real and newsworthy photo. I can see the caption now, "Celebrated American Photographer gets mugged by irate fan" Now that would have been a real spontaneous street photograph!
I kind of (used to) like Bruce Gilden's photography, but I hated this video.
From "I need the sun... there's no sun, OK?" though to the incessant badgering of the lady outside the shopping centre as he and his assistant / whatever repeatedly attempt to convince her that he is "famous photographer" (ughhh).
The lady doesn't care how famous he is, she doesn't understand what he's doing - she just doesn't want this massive, self-centred planet of a man crashing into her life.
The whole thing flows like a massive train wreck; it's a how-not-to guide to street photography.
I think he was really good. Firstly I was born and bred in the back streets of Derby 55 years ago and the only people that remind me of Derby anymore are the old and infirm and the 'character' people, other than that it is the same as anywhere else in the world. Secondly, it was said he only goes for the weak, I would put money on it that he doesent just go for the weak, in fact in the video he shoots a young man with a cropped head. You may not like his style but 1000's do and I am one of them and believe he is actually quite good.
pete
Bruce Gilden is a paparazzi of the dispossessed and usually invisible. This creates more interesting and more difficult images to consume than the bland publicity (junkie fix) craving, flash and trash of the conventional paparazzi.
It is a difficult thing for most photographers to come this close to strangers on a continual basis; Gilden has learnt how to respond to the range of reaction received and to move on. He is a tough (but sweet) cookie; it is unfortunate that a section of this film creates an impression otherwise. I don't know if the male colleague with him is his assistant, a representative of the BJP or someone from Format but whichever, he should learn to keep his vocal chords mute, it is most unhelpful to Gilden as a photographer practically and honourably, to have this crass intervention.
His driver in the opening shot also shows a disturbing lack of knowledge from someone apparently familiar with Derby and its environs (e.g. reference to a derelict building 'clockworks'). She tells him that Nottingham is in Derbyshire, perhaps it takes an American to inform a denizen of the UK from south of the Watford Gap otherwise.
Apart from the failings of its co-stars, this film gives an interesting snapshot of Gilden on a working day, it is a shame that the BJP could not have accorded more time and editing to the project. However the important issue is the resulting photographs from Gilden's project in Derby and here I think he has succeeded in presenting a portfolio of 'street' portraits which are both confrontational and compulsive to look at.
It would be great to think that some of his subjects might find their way to the exhibition and find something meaningful to take away with them, but that is not very likely and it is probably not the function of this photography to engage in this way after the event of trapping the light itself.
These photographs are one of the main highlights of this year’s photography festival and I think it has been a very successful commission.
"street photography is the hardest form of photography," Try telling people like Giles Duley that!! Or all the other photographers who have been killed or injured in their line of getting news back to us. Or even those photographers who are missing at the moment in Libya. All he had to deal with was not getting a handbag around the head. Other photographers are trying not to get killed by bombs bullets or beatings from so-called “Police”.
I love Bruce Gilden's photography. I know how hard it is to do this work. I love nothing more than to watch other street photographers work. But when Bruce tries to convince a woman that he's a famous photographer I cringed. That was a yikes moment! I was scared that he then might follow it up with a explanation of street photography. Of course, Bruce can't all of a sudden pull out some of his portfolio; that would just reveal the types of characters he's after and would insult those he's photographing. Again, this is a great video.
The negative comments on here have reminded me of why I cancelled my bjp subscription. Self important and opinionated nobodies. Bruce is a magnum photographer and has been doing this type of work for a life time. What have you got to show apart from all your bitching? Nowt.
And by the way, you don't need anyone's permission to photograph them in the UK. Wise up.
I'm a few years younger than this guy, and yes, I used to use Leicas outdoors for this kind of thing, but had he the right equipment for this particular job it would be much easier to do and the results would be much better- assuming he has talent, and I do not know his work.
But a Leica close in your face with a flash doesnt do it for me.
If he has a trademark style that means he compelled/addicted to repeating this same tachnique ad nauseum, well, if collectors buy the prints, then he is tagetting the market, but for me all Fung's comments certainly apply.
I used to live in Derby. I used to teach part-time years ago at the college, but no way do I connect Derby with just the tiny narrow cast of characters he targets at all.
So, the question must be, how low are Magnum's standard's now that such folk are members and have, presumably accolytes and followers.
I agreed completely with Phillip's comments and voting against Martin Parr for the same reasons- dumbing down, popularism, and naf visual standards, though I like some of Parr's work, but I seriously feel that the debasement of behaviour and the low standards of results obtained now have much to do with the suitability of either the machinery, the person, or both.
Parr is way to tall to be a good people photographer because of the lack of direct contact with his subjects- its not a criticism. This guy, Bruce Whatever, is an Ok height and has obviously contact, but the quality of the contact is questionable.
He is one frightened, frustrated, angry guy- I would not like him "doing" me, not at all.
If he produces, as he says, so little good work, perhaps he needs to actually learn manners, and/or discretion.
And use a machine that sees better from further away, and try digital as a means of speeding up what is obviously a very long steep hard learning curve for him.
And so many other Magnum members.
I mean I think of myself as a dinosaur too, but not exactly quite that bad.
People are worth so much more.
he seems a little arrogant but who cares, I'm not a fan of photographs of the homeless, or drug addicts etc especially when permission is not given. I put this into the same category. I think takes talent to envision the picture, but after that the rest of his execution is talentless and intrusive. He is obviously benifiting off other's misery or differences.. He doesn't seem like a pleasant man either.
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