Children hovering by the subway window to the glow of Coney Island’s Wonder Wheel. A man cowering from a pointed gun. A young vandal at work in a tagged subway car. A punk brooding at a station. In the mid-80s, photographer Bruce Davidson captured New York City’s subway commuters in a ground-breaking series first published by Aperture, freezing the subject in powerful, split-second vignettes.
The Illinois-born photographer has described his subjects as “the people in the subway, their flesh juxtaposed against the graffiti, the penetrating effect of the strobe light itself, and even the hollow darkness of the tunnels, inspired an aesthetic that goes unnoticed by passengers who are trapped underground, hiding behind masks, and closed off from each other.” Decades later, the images seem familiar yet distant, cinematic yet tangible. See flash-frightened women in furs and vigilante crime patrollers in our gallery and look for the third edition of Subway available soon from Aperture.
Photo credit: Bruce Davidson. Courtesy Rose Gallery
Comments (16)
i just wish i knew where the people were! so we could compare/contrast.
Why are these amazing? Some are great, most are less than.
@Akat: If you want to understand you have to take your camera with a flash (the flash is important) and go to the subway taking the gang, and people. Then you should understand why these photographers are amazing =)
photographs, sorry. But photographer also of course!
photographs, sorry. But photographer alors, of course
30 year old snapshots! Lame!
Dammm, myrtle and Broadway av M and J train.. Nice!!
only : FAN!!!! I love Photographer and New York
Have to agree with AKat; 7, 14, 17 are great IMO. The rest, hardly.
Disagree on the ‘lame snapshots’ comment, nice stuff here.
Great shots, thanks for sharing.
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anything NYC from back in the day is the shiznix for me :) the shots are dope.
Most people, simply didn’t then and certainly don’t now, have the sheer ball size to shoot other people in the way he does. He is extremely intrusive at times and will just take the ‘smash and grab’ style picture with a flash and without asking permission. It must help the fact that he is a large chap too!
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