Bruce Davidson: Subway

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Passengers on the platform looked at me, with my expensive camera around my neck, in a way that made me feel like a tourist—or a deranged person. In Davidson's own words, the people in the subway, their flesh juxtaposed against the graffiti, the penetrating effect of the strobe light itself, and even the hollow darkness of the tunnels, inspired an aesthetic that goes unnoticed by passengers who are trapped underground, hiding behind masks and closed off from each other.

He began taking photographs when he was ten, and studied at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the Yale University School of Design. Seeking to uncover beauty that habitually goes unnoticed, Subway was Davidson’s first documentary series shot in color.Thus, in the subway, Davidson resists the itch to take the gritty high-contrast black and white portraits common during that time and used purposefully to convey emotions. If you are afraid of photographing on New York’s subway system today, imaging spending five years in the height of the tough ’80s New York with a giant flash. Support for this exhibition is provided by an anonymous donor, the members of The San Diego Museum of Art, and the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Program. This edition adds forty unseen images to the original book, and includes a new introduction by Arthur Ollman of the Museum of Photographic Art in San Diego, and a foreword by Fred Braithwaite (aka Fab Five Freddy), the original graffiti artist.

Disrupting the closed off realm of riders who captured his eye was a central part of Davidson’s process: “if they said, ‘Yes’, it was yes; if they said, ‘No,’ then I knew it was no forever. In Davidson's own words, "the people in the subway, their flesh juxtaposed against the graffiti, the penetrating effect of the strobe light itself, and even the hollow darkness of the tunnels, inspired an aesthetic that goes unnoticed by passengers who are trapped underground, hiding behind masks and closed off from each other.You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. In this edition of classic photographic literature, a sequence of 118 images move the viewer through a landscape at times menacing, and at other times lyrical, soulful, and satiric. The breakthrough this painful tension I had to act quickly on impulse, for I hesitated, my subject might get off at the next station and be lost forever.

His mornings started with him packing his cameras, strobe light, lenses, filters, and accessories in a small canvas bag. I found that the strobe light reflecting off the steel surfaces of the defaced subway cars created a new understanding of color. As I went down the subway stairs, through the turnstile, and on to the darkened station platform, a sense of fear gripped me.Subway" is Davidson's visceral take on the New York underground system of the 1980s complete with beleagured passengers, Guardian Angels, graffiti and a palpable, all-pervasive sense of fear. Many were willing, enthusiastic even, about showcasing the realities of the subway system, but, with his expensive camera slung round his neck, Davidson also fell victim to attacks and muggings. Davidson learned technical nuances of photography from Al Cox, including lighting, printing, and dye transfer color. I photographed the people I had known there, survivors from the war and the death camps who had clung together after the Holocaust to re-root themselves in this strange land. Thanks for your time to teach Iam learning to take some good photography and I understand being in that moment for that shot.

Both a captivating study of light and color and a historical document of an elemental part of New York, Subway captures the many faces of the underbelly of this city. It received plenty of critical acclaim both as a document showing the unique moment in the societal fabric in New York City as well as its phenomenal use of extremes of shadow and color set against flash-lit skin. To break through this painful tension I had to act quickly, on impulse, for if I hesitated, my subject might get off at the next station and be lost forever.His initial expeditions into the subways were hindered by the fears of attack from street urchins, as he was seen as a tourist with expensive equipment in the most dangerous neighborhood of the city. He also carried quarters in his pockets to hand out to the people in the subways who often ask for money.