Bruce Gilden: street photography

It's hard to see where you can pick up on street photography. What is it exactly and who takes "street" photos? We're not just talking about friends taking photos of us on the streets on a dark drunken night, or the endless array of graffiti art photography you can always find on flickr or on the Wooster Collective. Weegee (photographer in the late 30s/early 40s known for his stark black and white street photography) is a good start, but Bruce Gilden is a perfect example for our modern day world.















Bruce Gilden was a student at Penn State studying sociology when he saw Michelangelo Antonioni's movie "Blowup" in 1968. He purchased his first camera and started taking night classes in photography at SVA. Fascinated with people on the street, they became the main subjects in his photos. He's published books of his photos on NYC, Coney Island, Haiti, prostitutes, mobsters, the homeless, bike gangs, and yes, the fashion industry in the 90s. His method of taking an image is using flash and getting right up close to the subject. Even closer the older he gets. He is currently repped by Magnum.