the man is a teddy bear….a family man…he would much rather talk about his teenage daughter Nina and French wife Sophie than about photography…honesty is his best policy…. you never never have to worry about what he “really thinks”…i live in Brooklyn…..but, Bruce Gilden is Brooklyn….
many think Bruce “attacks”…i do not know this for sure, but i am imagining Bruce has had a least one of his subjects “attack back”…but, Bruce and i are as much on the “same page” as anyone i know in Magnum …we surely have opposite personalities and ways of working, yet we have exactly the same “code” for life regarding fairness, transparency, and family….
Bruce is now working on a project on foreclosures in the U.S….a hardball look at one of the primary reasons for the financial collapse in America and the folks who “lost it all”…
his new Magnum in Motion digs in deep and gives us a vision of a side of this country that most ignore…
when Bruce went to Florida for the opening series on foreclosures, he showed us a certain kind of sympathy that i just do not recall in his previous work…
my first impression of Bruce came with his book on “Coney Island”…then “Haiti”, then “Go”….i thought Bruce harsh , but irresistibly fascinating…and funny…i can never take my eyes off of Bruce’s pictures even though i might feel a bit guilty for “intruding”, even as the viewer….if Bruce appears somewhat cynical with his work , when you know him personally , he is more “realist” than cynic….there is a difference…..the man’s work reveals a part of his personality, but not all…there is a straight up kindness in Bruce Gilden..and nobody but nobody has a better sense of humor…
please keep your eye out for Bruce’s continued work with foreclosures….anybody can smell a book in the making…
i am only hoping that i do not become one of his subjects…..
Marty Feldman from Young Frankenstein?
gilden
Bruce Gilden.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkIWW6vwrvM I wonder if HCB would have managed to stay unrecognized in the age of www?
:) Of course it is mr Gilden.
This is the guy who said: “I’m known for taking pictures very close, and the older I get, the closer I get.”
The man that roams the streets of new york with a leica and a flash.
Hope all is well david.
…. fucking LA traffic…
… stuck on 91 east… 5 miles per hour..
No way to make it on time..
Who cares..!
looks like i am too late for this…. ha ha
heading to CA tomorrow to visit my parents for the holidays – will try to stay in touch.
DAH – i will be in nyc for new years for a few days. hope to see you there! going to check out leica gallery and icp while i am there too!
xo
Monk Bruce
ZAFPHOD BEEBLEBROX?
JENNY
I haven’t recieved any emails from you after the 15th of December and the last one wasn’t OTT at all… I have contacted Shinji twice via LS and his email and also have heard nothing further…
the strange Bruce Gilden.
yea….monk gilden…or in his previous incarnation: freshly dead ;))))
writing writing writing….exhausted….i realize, bones is an opus ;))))
cant wait to hear the story of bruce
b
PS. NO DISRESPECT MEANT TO BRUCE!…if there is any fucking new yorker mother fucker that has a sense of humour it’s Gilden…the guy that doesnt suffer bullshit lightly….
so, hope david you and bruce see the links as laughter….
swamped by writing words…
running back to carve…
hugs
b
…
David… what’s with all these b&w images you post lately?
Funny, it was this morning I watched the video with B. Gilden scaring people on the streets of NY… and here he is, again…
Ok… I made it..
Feels so good to get out of this car..
and what a beautiful
Car… 300 horses… 320 torque…
It ain’t no joke!!!
Most important…
MICHAEL KIRCHER is back in the game..!
No
No
No, I didn’t say that B.G.
looks like M.K… I just welcome…
M.K… “back”… not he ever left..
Ok.. I’m back in the desert ..
Very, very close to the Indian Reservations..
peace & hugs
panos
That’s Steve McCurry’s Halloween 2008 Mask.
It’s a tradition since 1969, the year after BG got his first camera and shot Steve in face in the hallways of Penn State. :))))
love
haik
I usually don’t lie..
Unless I have to…
I told “her” I don’t care..
But… I do care… I really DO care..
I can’t believe I lied…
I didn’t even have to..
at least this time…!
looking forward to the gilden write-up..
btw, you’ll like this:
http://www.lunaticmag.com/
Hey, for me he have the Salvador Dali’s eyes, yet not so high !
Sorry really don’t know who’s the guy !
It’s Saruman of course…
as one monty python member said to another:
“is your name not Bruce???”
:)))
BG´s left eye is higher than the right.. mine is the opposite.
i like his style.
lance – LUNATIC MAG is superb..
thanks for sharing
Photo of Sean Connery during the filming of The Name of the Rose, trying to sneak off the set incognito to get some haggis.
Panos,
just do not (please) be too late tomorrow…
Gilden… for shure
VELIBOR..
sometimes i am in the mood for color , sometimes for black & white …my Family Drive work is in both med format color neg and b&w as per my new homepage photograph shot on Tri-X…mixing both b&w and color is my choice for this essay since it seems to best represent a “family album”….i have just been playing lately with my digi set for b&w and i just cannot imagine a color picture of Gilden…
DAH
welcome back…a couple of us posted some “burn” photos but no one really took the bait…maybe a quick contest before the holidays?
still thinking about my “shared september” project…i met with my member of parliament (state rep.) on monday and it looks like the ball is slowely starting to roll towards me meeting with the head of the canadian military, homeland defence, and veteran affairs. not giving up quite yet until i see what transpires around access.
on another note, i did a quick little update on my site…includes my recent essay on war resisters…i’m also playing with the notion of mixing B&W and color for this essay if it manifests…
thanks for your ears and eyes as always david…
Mr. Gilden, of course.
Okay, sorry for being me, me, me again but I’d love to show this to David as you may have missed my posting on the previous thread…
http://vimeo.com/photohumouristinmotion
It burst out of me as I was walking the boys to school the other day. It just overtook me. But I like it for what it is. No idea where it’s leading or anything like that. Perhaps it’s just an anomaly.
Please watch it loud.
Sorry for posting this link again. I’ll go away now for a while.
Paulyman.
PAUL…
that was fun!! maybe this will lead you to a video next time…or a combo..who knows..but i always like to see photographers playing with ideas…the only thing i might have enjoyed in your sequence would have been some kind of humorous ending..some picture that just made us smile at the end…
on my next visit to the U.K., which could be very soon, i would love to go over all of your family pictures with you..there are some gems…
cheers, david
You got it. Thank you.
I wanted to make a better ending too but would have needed permission to make shots in Connor’s nursery. Although I could have shot somewhere else.
It was all very spur of the moment.
How did your talk go last evening? Would have loved to have attended and had I been still living there, would have.
Hey ho!
Thank you, Mr. Harvey.
MARC…
i admire you for sticking to this…it still seems like you are going to have to figure out a way to make it all “stitched” together, but you will do it…
yes, a Burn photo contest would be good, but maybe i will wait until we launch…besides, right before Christmas i think we all get so busy that it just might not be practical…
please keep me updated on your project…
PATRICIA…
i plan to edit your work today…
cheers, david
DAVID,
Ah Gilden! one of my favourites!
I have a question. How do you edit when you’re mixing b&w and colour? as you’re doing for Family Drive. Any advice? I’ve been trying to put colour and b&w together and I think it’s damn hard! Probably partly because most serious photographers don’t mix colour and b&w in the same project so it’s hard to look for inspiration. I’ve been looking, but only found some mix from Christian Pattersons latest projects and JH Engström..
Thanks!
Cheers
MARTIN…
i really have no idea how the final edit will come down or how it will “play” in the book …and i do not think mixing b&w and color works most of the time…only for this particular project would i try it for that “family album” feel…all i know is that in my little preliminary slide show that i have , it seems to somehow work fine…rules, rules, what rules???
cheers, david
cheers, david
Thanks David!
I don’t think there’s any rules at all, but those who succeed in mixing impresses me..
I know. He is the Spanish Inquisitor #3.
http://onemansblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/Monty_Python_Spanish_Inquisition.jpg
;-)
BURN: Welcome into existence! May you bring peace and passion to the world! You look stunning from the start and no doubt I’ll grow to love your title over time! Congratuations all! What a fantastic start!!!
LISA: A phrase out of ‘The White Tiger’ comes to mind: What a fucking joke! Can it really be a coincidence that the moment I put up work from Mumbai I am blocked? My email address does not register and yet, the ‘account’ still exists? Teru says LS is running on ‘autopilot’.
But, on the bright side, I guess it is better that nobody can now access it as somebody was reading my PMs. But what do I do now? ‘The reaction to the over-reaction’ to the terrorist attack has endeared me to people…
Love to all,
Jenny xxx
Bruce Gilden of course. I wouldn’t mind being one of his subjects; I figure that if I can photograph on the streets then being ambushed by Bruce is o.k. by me.
David–
just a brief note…flat out pooped, writing writing-editing…gonna drop your jaw when you get the text…i will give u 2–1)long, full bore and 2)a short version…ill write you and explain…youll have both versions by saturday, in word format (not pdf, i trust you of course ç))))…
ok, as for Monk G! I just want to pass on to him my quick thoughts–
before i moved to Toronto to get married, i lived (before and after Los Angles) in Collier county….I lived on Marco Island (south of Naples) and in Bonita Spring (north of naples, south of fort myers)….i spent alot alot of time in Fort Myers and Punta Gorda…drinking, writing, photographing, fishing, boating….and I would like to tell Bruce that he NAILED IT!…not only was his MM piece on Fort Myers and Punta Gorda smack on, but he captured (maybe in ways he didnt fully realize) the life of people in that part of florida…he must know the profound (cataclysmic:) development of Collier, Lee and Charlotte counties…not only on the envirnoment but also on the lives of residents there…lee and charlotte were relatively poor counties (compared with collier or the counties on the east coast) filled with fisherman, farmers, factory workers, day laborers etc…the overdevelopment scared and carved up many lives…and many were swallowed in that development, especially the housing development (now u can live like the wealthy folk in collier, etc)…anyway, for me, a one-time resident and as a guy that use to be a writer for an architecture-engineering-environmental firm (the biggest in that area and the one responsible for much of the development and engineering), i can tell you how important and how soulful his project was-is….it aint just about the photographs (thought that too) but bruce capture the hunger and the sadness and the madness of what was happening and what has happened to their lives…the story inside the story of the real estate;development crash…
he got the story, as i know, lived and saw it, absolutely heart-breakingly right…
i know, i lived in those parts and have friends who live there still…
ok, will write u with the texts by friday-saturday morning
hugs
b
DAVID, ALL – take a look at Lunatic Mag:
http://www.lunaticmag.com/
The layout is perfect and I think you’ll love it. So for BURN, i don’t know if we can use a layout like this or if that would be too unoriginal or if that is a layout that is available through common software or what.. I just don’t know. BUT, it’s the best online magazine layout i’ve seen.
All – I just want to throw a little support to Juliana Beasley.. she is a marvelous photographer and she has prints for sale here:
http://www.julianabeasley.com/holiday_sale.htm
Check it out and pass the word. Good karma guaranteed. :)
‘Rules, rules, what rules???’ David says… the rules are running through my veins… my mind divided as compartments on a train… Come back Nirvana!… I’m missing you today…
Wait a minute… I’m getting a strong sense it’s Bruce Gilden.
Gilden’s Ytube video is one my favs there. Agressive? Come on, shooting with a camera here, not a gun, for criiiissakes! ;-)
My USB key went into the washing machine with the bed sheets this morning. I lost with it my Xmas gift to DAH blog, a last video from the Magnum Reunion, last June. The bad habit of letting things lay on the bed at all times, Comp’, books, food…Girls? No, no girls, only things)
I mentionned my little condo here in Pattaya. Well, it’s got a view, nothing glorious, maybe glowing sunset sometimes, but hey, that’s one more (view) than I have back home in San Francisco, so sharing with you all:
http://www.pbase.com/uc/image/107211791/original
I’ve had an idea for a photo contest brewing for quite a while. How about a “Recreate Your Favorite DAH Composition” contest. It can be as literal or figurative as you please.
Sounds like fun?
Bruce rocks! I also love the fashion magazine. The printing for b&w is pretty amazing (imho) in it, and some shots are just classic (the girl throwing the rose into the grave surrounded by gangsters).
@DAH: if you’re coming to the UK, pop by Wales. Bruce shot a new year over here, which I didn’t see till last year in the magnum blog. It felt quite surreal.
Goodbye roadtrips – what a great journey it’s been.
AKAKY IRL: Are you eating that?
AKAKY: What?
AKAKY IRL: The tuna on a roll.
AKAKY: No, take it. Knock yourself out.
AKAKY IRL: Thanks.
AKAKY: You know something, I’m a main weapon. Panos says so right there.
AKAKY IRL: Good for him. I always knew you were a big tool. Didn’t need him to tell me that.
AKAKY: Thanks loads. Gina wants to clone me.
AKAKY IRL: Is that so?
AKAKY: And she wants to come back as me in her next life.
AKAKY IRL: Dude, I hesitate to point this out to you, but there is no demand for middle-aged overweight civil servants. None. There’s already too many of them on the market now. As for coming back as you in her next life, well, that seems a little silly to me, given that you don’t want to be you in this life.
AKAKY: That’s true. I wanted to be Bill Gates, but that little dweeb got there before me.
AKAKY IRL: Into every life, guy…
AKAKY: A little rain must fall, I know.
AKAKY IRL: You got it.
AKAKY: No, if I was Gates, I’d have it all. As it stands, all I’ve got is you and frankly, you’re no bargain.
AKAKY IRL: Likewise, I’m sure.
AKAKY: So who do you think the guy is?
AKAKY IRL: What guy?
AKAKY: The guy in the picture.
AKAKY IRL: I dunno. Could be you.
AKAKY: It could be but it ain’t. I don’t look anything like that.
AKAKY IRL: That’s true. Maybe it’s me.
AKAKY: You don’t look like that, either.
AKAKY IRL: You sure? It’s been a while since I’ve looked in the mirror.
AKAKY: Trust me on this one, it ain’t you.
AKAKY IRL: Beats the hell out of me then.
AKAKY: Me too.
AKAKY IRL: It’s good tuna fish, though.
AKAKY: Really? I should have had some of it then. I’m hungry.
AKAKY IRL: It’s gone.
AKAKY: You ate all that already?
AKAKY IRL: There wasn’t that much of it.
AKAKY: Jesus, guy, it’s no damn wonder you can’t see your feet without leaning over. You’re gonna choke shoving stuff into your piehole that fast.
AKAKY IRL: Tell me about it.
It was surprising to see the US looking like a third world country. Perhaps this has always been around, but the first time I can remember seeing it in the media was after Katrina. Bruce is showing the world in the best tradition of photojournalism, a hard/compassionate and truthful gaze at something people don’t want to look at. He makes it compelling enough that it’s not easy to look away. I could see his presentation fitting-in well at Visa pour l’image. I appreciate his work more now that I know more about photography. He has found a way of looking at the world and can re-examine the world from this personal view. It’s a place that many great artists have arrived at…you could see it in painters, once Picasso realized the cubist view of the world he progressed to re-examine everything around him. There are many examples of this in art history.