BRUCE DAVIDSON

Bruce Davidson was born in Chicago in 1933 and grew up in Oak Park. He E!ttended

Rochester Institute of Technology, -where he was one of Ralph Hattersley's students,

then went to the Yale School of Architecture and Besign. After one semester he was

drafted into the Amy. It was while he was in the Army that his first published

photographs appeared in Life. These had. been made at Yale and the subject was

the tension of football players during a game.

In 1953 he joined EQlXl< iiax,1®utg.u .. txiX,e®1>et>C3tXi;Jaxxb&etHti®cd qi Magnum, the inter-

national photographic agency founded by Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa, and

was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in 1962. His work has appeared repeatedly in

almost every large national magazine,( and today he is the most frunous and active

of the younger generation of photographers. It has been his privilege to make

a personal, individual expression of the work of the actively :,nqgxg.iwi: involved

photographe� and he is distinguished by a quiet poetic quality which is his alone

and is inimitable.

AMERICAl'IJ NEGRO LIFE

In 1962, on a Guggenheim fellowship, Bruce Davidson made a survey, in many pho-

tographs, of the life of Negroes in the United States.

Five of t..h.ese photographs are show"'Il here.

THE BRIDGE

Bruce Davidson was much interested in the construction of the Verrazano-Narrows

Bridge over the entrance to New York harbor and the lives Ill£ lived by the men

who worked on it. Late in 1964 Gay Talese 1 s brilliant account of this great

. engineering achievement was published and twenty-three of Bruce Davidson's

photographs were used as illustrations. Several of them were also the illustra-

tions of the reprinting of a large part of the book in the December 1964 issuex

of Esquire.

More photographs from The Bridge are shown on the panel at the end of the exhibition.

�JI�&!X THE ENGLISH PEOPLE

All photographs exhibited in this room, except those on the panel on the back wall,

were made while Bruce Davidson was working on a commission for � Queen I s Magazine

in England. Some were published in'l!:f:B! Queen's Magazine and others appeared in

Horizon (November 1961), but most of them have not beeh published or exhibited before.

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THE BRIDGE

THE BRIDGE

On this panel are shown six additional photographs made during the construction

of the Verrazane-

.�E CA NEGRO UFE

In 19621 on a Guggenheim fellowship, Bruce D.vidson &de

photo�r phs, of the life of Negroes in the United tates.

surv y, in man. 1

1'4 ... r:rowo Bridge over the ent.runce o 1 New Yor"' harbor &1 th l 1 ve� -.i vec.i by

'W.:..' . &o th� illuatr""tlons of the reyrint.i.ng of l r5e pet·L o. tne licols.:

in ha D eembar 1964 1 s� oi �so ic�.

¥ore of th e rho1.ogr�phs v.t·e si1own on tho p&. el t the ond o ·the e.:hibition.

THE ElGIJ:SH PEOPLE

All p.."':iotogrnr,h e.d:i.ibi. tf>d in this room, e.x.cept tnose on the :,E-n'11 on :J::e buck

wall, were m de while Brue G'4e.e1fl

Q;a sat-=. •tagazine in Engl d,.

Davidson s -worki o'l a eo!!i',iss .on for othi,•i· ... :.n Horiaon

Some were pu,lishcd in The �ill en• Meg: zine, but

most cf thPm h ve n t b.,, n publi h d or exhib1 t ci before,.

On this . .P nel a re .own six additional photot r phs e.<le duri tho oonstr'l.l.ction