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BRUCE GILDEN

"I'M KNOWN FOR TAKING PICTURES VERY CLOSE, AND THE OLDER I GET, THE CLOSER I GET."

An Iconic street photographer with a unique style, Bruce Gilden was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1946. He first went to Penn State University but he found his sociology courses too boring for his temperament and he quit college. Gilden briefly toyed with the idea of being an actor but in 1967, he decided to buy a camera and to become a photographer. Although he did attend some evening classes at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Bruce Gilden is to be considered substantially a self-taught photographer.

 

Right from childhood, he has always been fascinated by the life on the streets and the complicated and fascinating motion it involves, and this was the spark that inspired his first long-term personal projects, photographing in Coney Island and then during the Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

 

Over the years he has produced long and detailed photographic projects in New York, Haiti, France, Ireland, India, Russia, Japan, England and now in America.

 

Since the seventies his work has been exhibited in museum and art galleries all over the world and is part of many collections.

 

The photographic style of Bruce Gilden is defined by the dynamic accent of his pictures, his special graphic qualities, and his original and direct manner of shooting the faces of passers-by with a flash. Gilden’s powerful images in black and white and now in color have brought the Magnum photographer worldwide fame.

 

Gilden has received many awards and grants for his work, including  National Endowments for the Arts fellowships (1980, 1984 and 1992),  French “Villa Medicis Hors les Murs” grant (1995), grants from the New York State Foundation for the Arts (1979, 1992 and 2000), a Japan Foundation Artist Fellowship (1999) and in 2013 a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship.

 

Bruce Gilden has published 23 monographs of his work, among them: Facing New York, 1992; Bleus, 1994; Haiti, 1996 (European Publishers Award for Photography); After The Off, 1999; Go, 2000; Coney Island, 2002; A Beautiful Catastrophe, 2004; Foreclosures, 2013; A Complete Examination of Middlesex, 2014. In 2015, Gilden published Face, and Hey Mister Throw Me Some Beads! Un Nouveau Regard Sur la Mobilité Urbaine featuring the commission he did for the French transportation system RATP which was released in April 2016. Most recently, Gilden has published Only God Can Judge Me, 2018; Lost And Found, 2019; Palermo Gilden, 2020; and Cherry Blossom, 2021.

 

Bruce Gilden joined Magnum Photos in 1998. He lives in Beacon, New York.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

1977. O.K HARRIS GALLERY, New York, NY (also 1979, 1984)

1986. LES RENCONTRES D’ARLES (Catalogue).

1988. HOUSTON CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY, Houston, Texas

1988. BLUE SKY GALLERY, Portland, Oregon

1989. BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE, Paris, France

1991. BLATENT IMAGE/SILVER EYE, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

1991. FOTOGRAFICENTRUM, Stockholm, Sweden 1986

1991. PHOTOGRAPHIC MUSEUM OF FINLAND, Helsinki

1992. SCHLOSSMUSEUM, Kleve Fotogalerie in der Schwanenberg, Germany

1992. GALERIE FNAC, Paris  (Traveling exhibition)

1992. THE CHRYSLER MUSEUM, Norfolk, Virginia

1993. GERMAN-AMERICAN INSTITUTE, Heidelberg

1993. GALERIA FORUM, Tarragona, Spain

1993. THE SPECIAL PHOTOGRAPHERS COMPANY, London

1993. MUSEE DE L’ELYSEE, Lausanne, Switzerland

1993. GALERIE BODO NIEMANN, Berlin, Germany

1993. MUSEE DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE, CHARLEROI, Belgium,

1993. FOTOGALERIA SAN MARTIN, Buenos Aires, Argentina

1994. CENTRE REGIONAL DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE, Nord Pas-de-Calais, France

1997. GALLERY 292, NYC

1994. LEICA GALLERY, NYC 1997 and Solms, Germany

1997. ROBERT B. MENSCHEL PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York

1997. ENCONTROS DA IMAGEM, Braga, Portugal

1997. GALERIE DU CHATEAU D’EAU, Toulouse, France

1997. THE ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY, Bath, England

1998. L’IMAGERIE CENTRE SAVIDAN, Lannion, France

1998. NIKON SALON, Tokyo, Japan

1999. ARQUIVO FOTOGRAFICO MUNICIPAL, Lisbon, Portugal (book)

2000. GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHY, Dublin, Ireland

2000. (1994, 1990) AGATHE GAILLARD GALLERY, Paris, France

2000. SHADAI GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan

2001. VISA POUR L’IMAGE, Perpignan, France

2003. FOTOGRAFISK CENTRUM, Copenhagen, Denmark

2003. FOTOGRAPHIE FORUM, Frankfurt, Germany

2003. FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DE LA MER, Vannes, France

2003. CARLA SOZZANI GALLERY, Milan, Italy

2006. SALA MUNICIPAL DE EXPOSITIONES SAN BENITO, Valladolid, Spain

2006. BRUCE SILVERSTEIN GALLERY, New York, NY

2008. TEEN HAAF GALLERY, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2010. AMADOR GALLERY, New York, NY

2011. DERBY MUSEUM & ART GALLERY, England

2012. LOOK 3, Charlottesville, VA

2012. PHOTOVILLE, Brooklyn, NY

2012. METENKO MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY, Ekaterinenburg, Russia

2012. LEICA JAPAN, Tokyo, Japan

2013. HIGHER PICTURES GALLERY, New York, NY

2014. ROBERT MORAT GALLERY, Berlin, Hamburg, Germany

2015. COB GALLERY, London, England

2015. UN NOUVEAU REGARD SUR LA MOBILITE URBAINE, Paris Metro Multiple Stations, Paris France

2015. POLKA GALERIE, Paris, France

2016. LEICA GALLERY, London England

2018. LEICA at PHOTO LONDON, London England

2018-2019. THIS LAND, Foreclosures and Face series exhibition at Pier 24, San Francisco, CA

2020. LOST AND FOUND and FASHION, 10 Corso Como, New York, NY

2020. LOST AND FOUND, Galerie Polka, Paris France

2021. FESTIVAL IMAGES Gibellina, Sicily, Italy

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

1987. “TWELVE PHOTOGRAPHERS LOOK AT US”, Philadelphia Museum of Art (Catalogue)

1987. “57th & 5th”, PACE/MACGILL GALLERY, New York City

1988. “NYC-SAME STREETS-3 VIEWS”, Houston FotoFest  (Catalogue

1988. VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, London, England

1989. MOIS DE LA PHOTO, Montreal, Canada (Catalogue)

1991. “MEAN STREETS: American Photographs from the Collection”, Museum of Modern Art, New York

1991. ‘REGARDS SUR MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES”, Traveling exhibition (Catalogue)

1993. “RECENT ACQUISITIONS”, Museum of Modern Art, New York

1994. “UBER DIE GROSSEN STADTE”, Marstall, Berlin, Germany

1994. “MAGIC MOMENTS: 40 YEARS OF LEICA M”, Traveling exhibition (Catalogue)

1994. HASSELBLAD CENTER, Goteborg, Sweden

1994. “WHO’S LOOKING AT THE FAMILY?” Barbican Art Gallery, London (Catalogue)

1999. MAGNUM: “OUR TURNING WORLD” Traveling exhibition, Barbican Art Gallery, London (Book)

2000. “NEW YORK NOW”, Museum of The City of New York, NY

2001. “NEW YORK SEPTEMBER 11” by Magnum Photographers (Traveling exhibition and book),

2002. “LIFE OF THE CITY”, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

2002. “NEW YORK CAPITAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY”, The Jewish Museum, NY

2004. “MAGNUM’S NEW YORKERS”, Museum of the City of New York, NY

2007. “TOKYO SEEN BY MAGNUM PHOTOGRAPHERS”, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Japan

2007. “60 YEARS OF FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY FROM MAGNUM”, Magnum Print Room & Atlas Gallery, London, England

2008. “70’s AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY”, Bibliothèque Nationale Paris, France (Book)

2010. “NEVER JUST LOOKING”, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany

2012. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY NOW, London, England (Traveling Exhibition and Book)

2014. POSTCARDS FROM AMERICA, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI

2015. FRAMING BODIES, Hasselblad Center, Goteborg, Sweden

2016. STRANGE AND FAMILIAR, England seen by foreign photographers, Barbican Center, London, England

2016-2017. STRANGE AND FAMILIAR, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, England

2020-2021. OPEN FOR BUSINESS Magnum Photographers on Commission, Deutshe Borse Photography Foundation, Traveling Exhibition

2020. TRIENNIAL, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Australia

AWARDS:

1992, 1984, 1980: National Endowment for the Arts Photographer’s Fellowship.

1995: Villa Medicis Hors les Murs Artist’s Fellowship.

1996: European Publishers’ Award for Photography.

1999: The Japan Foundation Artist’s Fellowship.

2000, 1992, 1979: New York Foundation for the Arts (Artist’s Fellowship), New York, USA.

2013: Guggenheim Fellowship

SELECTED COLLECTIONS:

Pier 24, San Francisco, CA

The Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA

Bill Block Collection, Los Angeles, CA

Elton John Collection, Atlanta, GA

Archive of Modern Conflict, London, England

Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol, England 

Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan

Museum of Modern Art, New York

The Royal Photographic Society, Bath, England

Victoria& Albert Museum, London, England

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Penn.

Galerie du Chateau d’Eau, Toulouse, France

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

Paris Audiovisuel, France

Museet for fotokunst, Odense, Denmark

Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

Photographic Museum of Finland, Helsinki, Finland

Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland

The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia

Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris, France

The Dreyfus Corporation, New York

Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York

National Gallery of Canada

Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass.

Wilson Centre for Photography, London, England

Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee WI

The Carpenter Center For Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

The Hasselblad Collection, Gothenburg Sweden

Center For Creative Photography, Tucson AZ

Arquivo Fotografico Municipal, Lisbon Portugal

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Australia

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