Whaddaya Mean, 'Not Here'?

You got to hope Bruce Gilden will be there tonight in Time Square. If he's not, he's there in spirit.

_______________________

Mike  (Thanks to Tom Kaszuba)

P.S. I could never do this. Not even once.

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Featured Comment by Bruce Appelbaum: "It takes a particular type of New York 'stones' to be able to do what Gilden does and not get beaten up on a regular basis. Or an immediate intuition about who to shoot and who not to. You have to be a New Yawka (as I am, accent and all) to appreciate this. There could be serious consequences of firing a flash in the wrong person's face.

"The other day I was shooting in NYC in the Chinatown/Little Italy area. I don't generally shoot people. But there was a group of Chinese men with their caged birds in Sara Roosevelt Park, and one let me take his picture. Hey, says I to myself, maybe I can make a go of this.

"I turned around and there were three older Chinese gentlemen sitting on a park bench. I gestured with my camera to the men, and one says (really!), 'Not here.' It wasn't the words, it was the ominous tone that went with it. Unlike Gilden, I didn't talk back, just smiled and walked away. Having had my balloon burst, I  didn't take any more people pictures."

Featured Comment by Gordon Lewis: "To Gilden's critics, before passing judgement on Bruce Gilden and his style of photography based on a 4-minute video clip, I suggest you visit his web site. I'm not saying it will change your mind, but at least you'll have more substantial evidence on which to base your opinion."

Mike comments: Some great stuff in that slideshow. I have to say, God knows I love Magnum photographers and their work, but I'm really growing to hate Magnum's website. The minuscule JPEGs are bad enough, but then to have those copyright notices sprinkled all over every damn picture...it's very distracting. Who's going to be able to use a teeny JPEG even if they do steal it? Well, besides me, I mean? Magnum should relax and get with web culture.

Featured Comment by Stan B.: "A couple of thoughts. If you grow up in NYC, want to photograph, don't have tons of money for a studio or to get outta the city—you photograph the streets. You may love Ansel Adams, but you ain't gonna commune with the grandeur of nature in the five boroughs. Don't judge Gilden by a short video and a half dozen shots, look at his books. Is the art he produces worth the split second of his sidewalk interruption? It's not every person's cup of tea, but I think the work phenomenal. He captures the very vitality and showtime atmosphere that is New York, each and every day where every corner is both stage and refuge. And he does it with a surreal balancing act of light, form, and yes, sometimes even a passing insight into what makes up his anonymous fellow denizens. What's more ethical, sneaking a shot with a telephoto, or acknowledging up close and personal that you're taking the person's photo? I abhor exploitative tourist photography of 'third world' countries—look at Gilden's work in Haiti for a a brutally honest, respectful and at times even beautiful presentation of it's people. If it's one thing I've learned, take a good look at the results, before you criticize."

Featured Comment by Ben Russell: "Bruce Gilden is amazing. Everyone should check out his latest Magnum In Motion segment on foreclosures. One of the best essays I've seen detailing the mess this country is in at this moment in time."

Featured Comment by pcb: "He’s got some good stuff…seems to me much of what he is trying to do is get in there before his subjects (characters) react. Breaking the 'personal space' barrier was always my biggest struggle…photography is invasive, whether we like it or not. Sure, some of us try to make it as polite an invasion as possible, but who are we kidding? Shoot first, apologize later."

Comments

[Carl Leonardi]

It's amazing that he doesn't need to focus the Leica.
No wonder there such a great cameras.
Happy New Year to all, Carl

[jk]

I'm with you, I'm the one always waiting for people to get OUT of my shot... but this is a great vid to share, see how he works and deals with some of the people he shoots. Thanks!

[Derek]

That's beyond obnoxious. I don't even let friends take my picture. This guy would need new teeth.

[Bahi]

I couldn't do it, either - not with a flash, at any rate - but I love looking at Gilden's results. I don't know whether it's just an illusion but looking at people in cities who haven't had time to react to a camera *appears* to reveal something deep about the way we are in urban environments. I'm addicted to people-watching on the tube in London, an endlessly fascinating activity because most people keep their eyes buried in their books. Best wishes for the New Year!

[Nicolas]

This is "close enough"!!...
It reminds me G. Winogrand but it's closer and more agressive. Today everybody can take a photograph (even if it's not with a Leica!-) Hopefully, everybody is not making this kind of photographs. Try to imagine a street with plenty of guys like him...
It's probably why there are laws on the image. Perhaps it's a pity. Peoples are just passants and nothing more, just unknowns on a photograph. This way we don't care about Who they are...just humans in their environment. This kind of photography can be described as "hunting humanity" instead of "humanist photography".

Thank you, it was funny.

Happy new year to TOP's writers and readers, from Belgium. I wish It will be focused more on humanity. Told me "simple-minded"...

[Thiago Silva]

I wonder how his "in your face" style would work in other less busy and less "anonymous" places than New York. But perhaps that's part of the thing...how they portray New Yorkers well exactly because they could only have been taken there.

And yes, I could, never, never do that.

[Ted Johnson]

A paparazzi for the common man. Maybe if you were in NYC it wouldn't be so hard, Mike. Heh, thinking about it, maybe it would be even harder.

Happy New Year, btw.

[Ken Tanaka]

Yes, this technique can produce some visually interesting results ala Gary Winogrand. Yes, many 20th century books have been filled with this stuff. Yes, many "street" photographers will watch this video many times for inspiration.

But I don't personally buy it. It's the ultimate example of quoting out of context. This guy moans about other photojournalists' big egos, yet this is perhaps an ultimate act of self-centricity and egotism. He feels that his desires tower over every one else's values and desires. He seems every bit as egocentric and ocd-driven as Winogrand.

And in the end what has he really captured?

[Alexander Kunz]

If someone would take a photo of me that way, I think I might (just accidentally) punch his nose in something like a kinetic reflex, I don't know. I find that this is a very problematic "art" form...

[johnasavoia]

I'll be doing it tonight, with a big ole flash too.

[John Igel]

Great video and I'm with you Mike, I could never do what he does...

[John Roberts]

I'm with you, Mike. I enjoy viewing this kind of photography, but I couldn't do it like Gilden does.

[jedrek]

I think we say 'I could never do this' until we actually do it, then we realize it's not really that big a deal.

[Paul Amyes]

He's definitely not the shy and retiring type is he? I wonder what dear old Henri thought about him? I read he couldn't stand Martin Parr's work, and Parr comes across as very introverted compared to Gilden.

[Der Norbert]

Couldn't do it, too. Think it's kind of disrespectful in a way.

[Jean-Claude Irminger]

me too ... I am unable to do this ... like you ... not even once! This guy is amazing :)

[charlie d]

"I have no ethics"

I love that guy, and all of his Brooklyn carnival act.

[misha]

This is a riot!!

I'd be afraid of getting punched, but it was a great video. I always ask "Do you mind?" But that's my style.

[Peter Hovmand]

Now THAT'S street photography!

[Willy England]

Is it allowed in the US to publish photos of people without asking them?

[Peter Robinson]

I could do it but I wouldn't because the results, in my view, are pretty bad. The flash especially ruins it. And why the low angle all the time?

I prefer to picture people doing things naturally, which means not letting them know I'm photographing them. My method is to get in close with a wide angle.

Here's a link to one http://www.monopix.co.uk/misc_images/3.jpg

I was standing shoulder to shoulder with this guy, used a 28mm lens and he never knew I took it.

[Paul]

I find his in-your-face style offensive. He does nothing more than "take" pictures. See the feature about Bangladeshi street photographer Safder Ali on the BBC site for an interesting take on another practitioner.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/

[Gordon Lewis]

I love it! After all the froth about which camera is "the best," here's a weathered photographer, wearing a wrinkled photo vest, with a worn Leica in one hand and a portable flash in the other, walking against the flow of pedestrian traffic and taking "in your face" photos of whoever he finds interesting. It just goes to show you that some of the biggest limits in photography are self-imposed.

[Bill Bresler]

Great clip.

I like doing street photography, but I'll tell you, mine aren't nearly as big as Gildens's, nor are they made of brass.

He's as much a character as his subjects.

[Jay Moynihan]

Thank you for posting the video. Very cool, very interesting.

Also nice to see there is still a place in the country people do not freak at being photographed on a public street.

[Derek]

I've never hated a photographer. This guy, I hate.

"...All these people I photograph--they're like my friends."

The words of a person who has no friends.

He then announces, with pride, "I have no ethics." Really ugly.

He tells one victim he doesn't own the street. I would hope he owns his face, though. This stuff is vulgar and exploitative. He's stealing, essentially. It's more of an assault than photography. He's just lucky he's bigger than most of his prey.

[Chris K]

That guy is extremely obnoxious. If I were one of his subjects, I'd be very irritated at his aggressive style.

What do you think someone will think the NEXT time they see a camera coming towards them, after an encounter with this guy? It's people like this that give people the impression that photographers are ghouls out to exploit people with photos.

[Dave Kee]

It must be my looks (or lack thereof) and my old age, but I find I can wander downtown Chicago with camera and strobe, and rarely have a problem shooting strangers. Of course, if someone really objects I smile and move on.

[Jeff Glass]

Ken Tanaka said:
And in the end what has he really captured?

An excellent question. Looking at a number of his photographs, I believe what he often captures is little more than anonymous people trying to avoid a camera being shoved in their faces. No real quiet revelation of "character" or even of "characters." The results are kind of interesting in a way, esp with flash and low angle, but in my mind it's pretty meaningless and pretty one-dimensional and more revealing of the photographer's lack of ethics and concern than of any quality of other humans.

These same questions must be asked of all street photography of course.

[Harry Lime]

A question for the dilettante photographers, who also seem to consider themselves tough guys.

Are you seriously going to punch a 60 year old man in the mouth, because he took your picture with a flashgun?

Are you seriously going to punch a fellow photographer in the face for doing what you don't have the balls to do yourself? Yeah, it may be somewhat obnoxious, but let's face it. It's harmless.

I'm willing to bet that most people here talking about kicking his can don't have the guts to go out on the street and shoot up close and straight on with a 50 or shorter. Using a 80-200 doesn't count. But I guess that's why he's a famous Magnum shooter and they are not.

And lastly, as a New Yorker in exile, getting blasted by Bruce Gilden for a split second is the least of your problems, when wandering the streets of New York. Note how the New Yorkers in the video take it all in stride and some even seem amused.

HL

[hugh crawford]

Some of it is photographing where people expect that sort of thing. One particularly nice day I went to the corner of 5th and 57th in Manhattan and Bruce Gilden and Bill Cunningham were already there.
http://www.smugmug.com/photos/6928482_vMHtD-O.jpg

Bill is all like "excuse me but may I photograph you" at which point he has already taken the picture, Bruce is more like cue the Flight of the Valkyries.

Note that they are both "in costume"

That photo is taken about where he's shooting for the first minute or so in the clip.

[louis mccullagh]

The question is NOT could you do it but would you do it.

Only in NEW YORK? Are people saying that because New Yorkers are so rude anyway that people like Bruce are not unusual (and anyway he doesn't actually hurt or touch them).

I reckon he is invading their personal space. He is treating them as objects like a animals in a zoo.

I have seen this before when photographing in foreign countries.

Do you act like Bruce when you are in Africa or Asia etc. You know those places where people don't have as much right to be treated respectfully!!!

I heard a guy say "I'm taking their photo whether they like it or not!".

My take on it is that one should treat others as you would like to be treated yourself . I know a lot of americans are visitors here so the phrase "All men are born free and equal, in dignity and in rights, and, being endowed by nature with reason and conscience..."

I wonder how Bruce would feel if maybe some one shoved a camera and flash in his face umpteen times?

Often when I photograph abroad I see others treating locals and their lives /culture as if they are having a day's photography at a zoo.

That doesn't sit well with me.

I know most photographers (especially amateurs) are shy taking people photographs and so tend towards photographing with long lenses or covertly (sort of like Bruce i.e. without asking).

I have always found speaking to people is much much more interesting. A different type of photography which is more real is for others to debate.

[Mike Peters]

My very own Bruce Gilden experience...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikepeters/311650106/

This image consistently gets tons of views. Bruce is a good guy to meet, we spoke for quite a while. It was the day after Thanksgiving in the Herald Square area and I recognized him from behind just by the way he was shooting people.

[John Camp]

I found out early in my newspaper career that I could never be a good manager, because I couldn't do what good managers do, which is (sometimes) to fire people for poor performance. I know it's good for the organization, but when I was in my first real managerial job, I had to deal with a guy who *couldn't* perform. If I fired him, I knew he would never be able to get an equivalent job, and the firing would have a terrible impact on his wife and child. So, I didn't fire him, and the organization suffered for it.

I couldn't do what Gilden does for some of the same reasons I couldn't be a good manager -- because I couldn't go through life knowing that I was going out on the street where I would frighten and intimidate old ladies. I've taken a lot of news photos, but they were at "events" (like disasters) where people knew they were being photographed, and why. Not saying I'd suggest forbidding people from behaving like this -- I even enjoy working with good managers -- but *I* couldn't do it. Wouldn't do it. Watching him work, I suspect he enjoys his own behavior more than the photography.

This has nothing to do with Gilden, but some business news programs on TV have repeatedly run a video clip of photographers gathered in front of Bernard Madoff as he walks along the street. If I'm not mistaken, when Madoff reaches out and tries to push his way through them,one of them punches him in the chest, hard enough to rock him back. Anybody seen it? (Maybe the photographer was an investor?)

[Former New Yorker]

They leave him alone because they think he's crazy. He only has to worry if he runs into someone who actually is.
HAPPY NEW YEAR MIKE!

[Blake Ford]

He's a bully with a camera. Most of his subjects are elderly, small or female. The invasion of privacy isn't justified.

[Adam Isler]

Well, I'm not a Magnum photographer, but I am a New Yorker who has been practicing street photography here in my home town for over 35 years since buying my first reflex camera with Bar Mitzvah money (a Minolta SrT101).

Of course we do have a (legal) right to take pictures of people in public places without their permission and sometimes I do. But usually I ask or at least gesture my request. And I almost never take someone's picture who has refused me.

My shots (you can see some here: http://islerphoto.zenfolio.com/p482358986 ) don't have the startling immediacy of Bruce Gilden's - but his lack a certain honesty, I think. Now I'm not one who believes photographs need to be journalistically accurate by any means - but I think his method works to create the illusion that he's capturing people as they are when in fact he's scaring the bejesus out of them and capturing their fear or annoyance. Had I not seen the video, I would have viewed his images much more appreciatively and wished I could get shots like that. Having seen the video and knowing how he's provoked these expressions I feel cheated - to say nothing of how his antics harm my ability to peacefully walk the streets of NY photographing people less aggressively...!

[ronin]

Maybe it's just the video. But it seems like he only picks on little old ladies, little old men, and women who don't look like they would teach him something about street.

And just thinking, isn't midtown Manhattan a cliche by now, just like sunsets? I imagine every Midtown corner with a street photographer, jockeying for position. As someone said, do this in K.C. or Pittsburgh or Columbus for a change; I'm sure style differences would force some creativity.

But then what do I know, I think Cartier-Bresson is a genius, and Winogrand is a poseur.

[david]

He doesn't seem to like or respect his subjects much, and that shows in his work. Garish, almost caricaturized people. He calls them his friends but I'd just as soon not have friends that treat me like that. I'll give him points for balls but none for his apparent lack of respect. Just where does he get his sense of entitlement? Please, no wonder photographers are resented and feared. Thank God that for every Gilden out there there are a handful of kinder, more respectful photographers.

Having said all that, as performance art his little routine is pretty interesting - if he was doing this as a satirical poke at street photographers I'd call it brilliant. I give the guy credit for having guts, if indeed that's an admirable thing (not sure it is). If there's any city in the world this would work I guess it's NYC. Still, as one commenter suggested, I'm surprised he still has all his teeth.

Thanks for posting this.

[Ken Tanaka]

Addendum:
I had no idea that this fellow is a Magnum member. I wonder what that says about Magnum today? I really don't know.

Personally, I much prefer Adam Isler's images (an earlier commenter). I find them much more visually and emotionally informative. I wonder what that says about ME? I really don't know that, either.

[Evil_Sheep]

If Al Pacino was a street photog....Hilarious.

[Lloyd Gagnon]

In 50-60 years when people wonder what people were like in 08, the photos will be gold.

[T Adams]

I watched the vid long enough to catch the first two shots of hapless passersby, and then felt too repulsed to continue. A Madoff or Blago deserves to be photographed in this fashion, but not these folks. And the shots were so plain! I think that Diane Arbus asked permission to take street photos, and compare her results with 1950s equipment to what this joe does.

Yuck. There oughta be a law.

[yunfat]

"She smiled"

"That's even worse"

[ycl]

I unashamedly admire Gilden. He is who he is, and he's doing his photography the only way that he can, producing images that (to many of us) often cross into the realm of art. He is who we should all strive to be as photographers: To do the thing that we (and only we) are somehow "constituted" to do, and do it as well as we can.

To those who invoke "ethical" objections, my principal response is that, relax, man, it's New York City. Of all the stuff that happens when one lives in NYC, where one is ceaselessly tossed in close quarters (sidewalks, subways, offices, stores, everywhere) with thousands of strangers (many quite objectionable, in matters of noise, smell or behavior, e.g.)) having someone stick a camera in your face is really the least of your concerns. I do it, and I don't care if someone does it to me. It's part of living here.

Now, of course, the flash thing is over-the-top ballsy. But not outside the bounds of acceptable behavior in NYC, this New Yorker would say. And, besides, it's a guy doing his art thing, and a small price to pay for that.

[Darkspore]

I think it takes a lot of guts to go out there and do what Gilden has done. Very intuitive, interesting shots. Even in Singapore where people are considered mild-mannered, I think twice about doing this. Some great stuff in that video.

[David Boyce]

I don't think I could, or even want to, photograph like he does. But the work is powerful and compelling.

I have found the negative comments about how he is working interesting. But what about the film crew? They are doing the same thing really, they are "invading the peoples privacy" just as much as Gilden (or anybody who takes a photograph) does. In fact arguably more so as the acceptance of filming on the street has become background and common place.

[Eolake Stobblehouse]

You should read my blog, I posted this two months ago. :-)

http://eolake.blogspot.com/2008/10/street-photographer.html

[EmmJay]

I've watched this video 5 or 6 times in the last few months. Have to say it's a bit less shocking after each viewing. As to the folks who are offering a Bruce a punch in the nose I say come on. Are you really going to violently assault someone who took a photo of you, basically doing nothing on a city street? I did notice Bruce did not photograph the tougher looking guy with the shaved head. He's no dummy.

[Michael W]

Ahh, the Bruce Gilden video. Always sure to stir up the ants nest. Why can't he stay home & pixel peep snaps of his cat's fur like decent people do?
Seriously, I'm with Harry Lime - what's with the keyboard heroes threatening physical violence against him? That's real ugliness. Personally I'd be honoured to be photographed by Gilden.