Photographers in Focus: Bruce Gilden

to be a good photographer you don't have to be a genius you have to persevere know who you are and know what you want to say and you have to be very critical of yourself and the others as much as someone might think that I'm a loose cannon I'm anything but I don't think I've ever said this before but maybe it was a reason to get out of my house I [Music] had to figure out how do I attack New York City photographically so I started to use flash and also I did a lot of work without flash I'm an intuitive photographer I know what I'm looking for but it's really hard to define it I'm looking for someone that have the energy of the street to stress the anxiety and a lot of pictures I was doing I was you could feel especially the flash pictures someone the process that's going on in their brain they're thinking you know they're like they're there but they're not there they're in the city but they're walking through it not consciously through it okay it's almost like a dream okay and they're thinking about all that's going on in their life and that that's what struck me when I look at those pictures my father was a large influenced on me and you know he was he was this mafia looking figure with pinky rings thick hair hats big cigars so I used a lot of those things in my photography because that's what I grew up with that's what I was interested in so I learned things that other people didn't have the opportunity to learn and I put that all into my photography I photograph people I guess but also because of my childhood it was a very tough childhood when I was five years old I idolized my father and he disappointed me so much in my life as did my mother as a child I always liked the most extreme wrestler okay you know like for example man-mountain Dean you know he said look like something out of the woods he weighed 400 pounds so my photography is an essence of what I liked and just what I was drawn to as a child and I think the most important thing is I wanted to get back at my father he always told me things that were negative towards me he never was positive okay so I wanted to show him that I can do something and that's why I photograph and that's maybe why I photograph people so I'm always proving to myself that I can do this and do it but it's not it's it's in not in the process now it's in what I achieve from doing that and that closeness to me the closeness is so important and telling the truth so to me I want to make sure that there are no mistakes you understand me I'm clear okay people on the street these kind of people trust me because they know I'm a character and I know when they know they feel that when I ask them something is from my heart I'm not I'm not trying like with the hookers I'm not trying to glorify them I'm showing them for what they are people don't want to look at those pictures a lot of people because if they're hard to look at but if you don't look at it how can you help them I don't feel sorry for them but I want people to recognize them maybe because I want to be recognized you know for overcoming all I overcame okay so I want to give a voice to these people [Music] I've been an angry person I've been sad you know I'm still sad and angry to this day but I think I know myself I know the positives I had and I know how hard I work for it you know you have to work hard and that that's the key and no matter what anybody says about you if you feel you have talent and you have to have some talent and if you feel that's what you're meant to do and you photograph for yourself I think you're on the right track [Music] you

Channel: NOWNESS

Views: 56,938

Keywords: short film, NOWNESS, Bruce Gilden, Magnum, Photography

Id: We_vS_-rgng

Length: 4min 40sec (280 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 12 2018