Bruce Gilden is an American street photographer born in 1946. He first became interested in photography whilst studying at Penn State University, which he quit without finishing, and went on to take it up as a career. Gilden’s work has worked primarily in black and white using flash to give his images a direct and powerful quality. Gilden initially started photographing the people of Coney Island and New York and has gone on to work in many part of the world including the UK, Ireland, Japan and Haiti. Gilden’s work comprises street scenes including aware and unaware portraiture. Gilden’s approach is summed up by a quote on his website:

I’m known for taking pictures very close, and the older I get, the closer I get

Bruce Gilden

Gilden has been a member of Magnum since 1998.

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I find many of Gilden’s images difficult to look at and much of it reminds me of Diane Arbus’s work in that much of it seems to focus on marginalised members of society; this seems particularly true of many of his colour images. Watching videos of him working his style is very ‘in your face’ at times could be thought of as bordering on aggressive, however, one of points he makes in one of the videos I watched is that it is important to shoot in your own style and that what works for him will not necessarily work for anyone else.

Sources

Bruce Gilden. (2020). About — Bruce Gilden. [online] Available at: https://www.brucegilden.com/bio [Accessed 31 Jan. 2020].

En.wikipedia.org. (2020). Bruce Gilden. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Gilden [Accessed 31 Jan. 2020].

Kim, E. (2020). 5 Lessons Bruce Gilden Has Taught Me About Street Photography. [online] ERIC KIM. Available at: https://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/08/24/5-lessons-bruce-gilden-has-taught-me-about-street-photography/ [Accessed 31 Jan. 2020].