Bruce Davidson
Born in Chicago in 1933, Bruce Davidson won first prize in the 1949 Kodak National High School Competition. He graduated from Yale University in 1955, and his Phd on a behind-the-scenes look at an American soccer team, was published in Life magazine. He then moved to Paris for two years for his military service, where he produced his first subject: Widow of Montmartre, which he presented to Henri Cartier-Bresson. At the same time, he obtained a freelance position with Life.
He joined the Magnum agency in 1958 and shot a story about a lonely clown in a traveling circus: The Dwarf.
In 1961, he was hired by Vogue as a fashion photographer, where he stayed for three years. That same year, he began to work on the struggle of Black Americans for equal civil rights, and the following year received the Guggenheim Fellowship
to extend his study to New York, Chicago and the American South. These images are now gathered in the collection Time for Change, published in 2002. The subject was also the subject of an exhibition at the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in 2007.
'I made a decision early on not to buy a telephoto lens, to never be more than a meter and a half from the protesters and the policemen I was photographing on the streets. I wanted to be almost in the picture(...)"I was up close and I was quick. I had to be just to stay one step ahead of being arrested. All the time I was witnessing that struggle, I felt I was part of something, not apart from it. That's always the instinct and I think it has served me well.'
He joined the Magnum agency in 1958 and shot a story about a lonely clown in a traveling circus: The Dwarf.
In 1961, he was hired by Vogue as a fashion photographer, where he stayed for three years. That same year, he began to work on the struggle of Black Americans for equal civil rights, and the following year received the Guggenheim Fellowship
to extend his study to New York, Chicago and the American South. These images are now gathered in the collection Time for Change, published in 2002. The subject was also the subject of an exhibition at the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in 2007.
'I made a decision early on not to buy a telephoto lens, to never be more than a meter and a half from the protesters and the policemen I was photographing on the streets. I wanted to be almost in the picture(...)"I was up close and I was quick. I had to be just to stay one step ahead of being arrested. All the time I was witnessing that struggle, I felt I was part of something, not apart from it. That's always the instinct and I think it has served me well.'
