Bruce Gilden on Photography

The following statements by Bruce Gilden are excerpts from interviews that I have compiled and organized by topic.

1. Seeing

How a photographer learns to see.

And there's another quotation I love, from Robert Frank: "It's important to see what is invisible to others."

I'm a student of the game. I looked at every magazine and every book I could find, and I collected photography books for a long time. Once I got into photography, I looked at everything I could get my hands on.

I learned photography by looking at photographs. I know a great deal about the history of photography and the history of street photography. I learned by looking, and I think that's incredibly important.

I looked at countless photographs. I learned what I liked and what I didn't like. I tried to figure out what lenses photographers were using and where they were standing. I'm a student of the game.

What I see in much of today's street photography is, quite honestly, disappointing. One of the major reasons is that many photographers don't know the history of street photography.

But I do think a lot of younger photographers don't know the history of photography. They'll produce a body of work and say, "Wow, this is really great," without realizing that someone made very similar pictures twenty or thirty years ago. It's not necessarily bad work—it may be technically excellent and perfectly sharp—but it simply isn't inspiring.

Look at magazines. Look at books as much as you can. See what you like and what you don't like. Make those choices. Know what came before you, and then try to do better. Let that be your starting point, and go further.

Photography, to me, means learning from the past. Today, too many people make the same kinds of pictures. You could change the photographer's name, and the only thing that distinguishes one from another would be the subject matter. That doesn't interest me, because then any schmock can do it.

If you're doing something, you have to keep evolving.

How many photographers have produced better work while doing exactly the same kind of photography over a long period? Usually, the best pictures come early on. That's why it's always good to try something new.

2. Getting Close

Physical and emotional proximity.

I once read what Robert Capa said: "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough." That really resonated with me.

I would like to capture the soul or the guts of someone in a picture.

One of the first quotations that really struck me, before I even knew exactly what I wanted to do, was Robert Capa's: "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough." That has always been my mantra. It's funny—sometimes I'd make a picture from farther away and think it worked reasonably well. Then I'd take a step closer and immediately realize it was a much better photograph. That's been true throughout my career.

I'm known for getting very close to people, and the older I get, the closer I get.

What I've always found is that when I'm closer, my work is more powerful. The closer I am, the more powerful the picture is.

To me, when you're close, the picture becomes more dramatic and more powerful. That's what I respond to.

I've always liked working close to people. The funny thing is that after 1977 I used a Leica, and rangefinder cameras don't focus nearly as close as Nikon SLRs. So in a sense I was constantly working against myself.

The only real specificity of my candid street work is the way I construct the picture. One thing I often do is place several elements in the foreground to lead the eye toward the main subject in the background.

3. Composition & Emotional Content

What makes a strong photograph.

To me, a photograph has to work within the frame and have strong emotional content.

It's all about the visual. It's about framing something well and giving it strong emotional content. At the end of the day, my best pictures are really about me—about my attitude toward life. A little angry, a little sad, but always caring about people.

Today, a lot of people say, "Oh, I have this great concept." Fine—you may have a great concept, but if you do a shit job of realizing it, who gives a fuck about the concept? It's about what's in the frame. It's not about the process. It's not about talking. I want to see it done well. If you do it well, you've accomplished your job. If you don't, then you're simply not very good.

Flash helps me emphasize exactly what I want to emphasize. It took me years from the moment I first thought about using flash until I finally committed to it.

I don't like one-line joke pictures. I've never been fond of them.

I don’t like corny pictures, I don’t like clichés pictures, I don’t like one-line joke pictures – and a lot of street photography today is about that and I don’t rate it at all.

Sometimes I make a picture that's so formally perfect it almost looks staged. That's why I also like photographs with cut-off arms or awkward edges—they retain an organic quality and don't look staged.

I'm not an Ansel Adams fan. If all you have is technical quality without content or emotion, it means nothing to me.

Ulrich Aydt: So what makes a good photograph? Bruce Gilden: A photograph with strong emotional content that is framed well. There are famous photographers whose reputations rest almost entirely on their first body of work. Everything they produced afterward was mediocre, yet they're still regarded as great photographers. Personally, I don't agree.

4. Being Yourself

Authenticity over imitation.

It's a tough road, and you have to be passionate and serious. You have to really want to do it, whatever your reasons may be.

Kevin C. Downs: What advice do you have for young photographers? Bruce Gilden: Be yourself. You have to know who you are and photograph who you are.

Ulrich Aydt: Is there anything you would recommend to young photographers? Bruce Gilden: Be yourself. It doesn't matter what anyone else says. If you believe in what you're doing—and if you have the talent—you have to follow your own path. The problem is that many people fool themselves into believing their work is much better than it really is.

The kind of street photography I do is an extension of who I am—competitive, confrontational, and willing to get in close.

Why does one photograph sing while another doesn't? I think it comes down to a deeper vision. In many ways, I'm photographing myself in my pictures—that's me. Some photographers don't put themselves into their work. If I can't be true to who I am, I don't do it.

I used to take photographers out on workshops so they could watch me work. Some would imitate my use of flash with varying degrees of success. But as soon as they went home, they returned to photographing in the way that felt most natural to them—whether they were good at it or not. That's when I realized the real lesson: be yourself.

That's why my workshop is called Be Yourself. I give people assignments that help them discover their own way of seeing. Sometimes I encourage them to try a different direction if I think it suits them. But I always ask, "Do you feel comfortable doing this?" I don't expect someone to put a flash in a stranger's face or work extremely close if that's simply not who they are.

A lot of photographers attend workshop after workshop with completely different photographers. How can you possibly discover your own voice that way? In my opinion, you're just wasting your money.

I can't stand looking at someone's pictures when they remind me of somebody else's work. To me, that's a big no-no.

I want to see someone who has something in their soul that makes it hard for someone else to do. That's what separates the truly great photographers from the ordinary ones.

5. Long-Term Projects

Learning through time.

Anybody can take one great picture. It’s the body of work that counts.

When I look at snippets of what I did in New York City, I'm looking at twenty years of photographs.

My first book, Facing New York, consisted entirely of candid street photographs. It was a long-term project. I chose New York City because I lived there and needed a place where I could go out and photograph every day. I'm a great believer in long-term projects because they allow you to return, improve, and build upon what you've already done. My pictures became stronger as I learned, and that gave me the motivation to continue.

If you're doing street photography the way I do it, I think it's the hardest form of photography to do well. That doesn't mean the only good pictures are street photographs. It simply means it's extremely difficult because there are so many things that can go wrong. I call them unlucky accidents. But when everything comes together, that's the lucky accident.

There are times when everything flows, and there are times when nothing does. Sometimes what's in front of you simply isn't there for you; other times everything falls into place. I remember going out for an entire month without making a single good picture. Then suddenly I'd make two great ones in a row.

6. Failure, Editing & Self-Criticism

A chapter on humility.

So how many really good ones [street photographs of New York City] do I have? Ten? Twelve? It's not many.

Bruce Gilden: How many truly great pictures does any one of us have? Martin Parr: Never enough. Bruce Gilden: I agree. It's actually a very small number. Photography is like baseball. If you bat .300 in baseball—three hits out of ten—you end up in the Hall of Fame. In photography, the ratio is much worse.

Early success isn't always a good thing. You start believing what everyone says about you. You begin believing your own reviews. I don't think that's healthy.

Max Blagg: What have been the biggest challenges in your career, and how did you overcome them? Bruce Gilden: There have been two major challenges. The first has always been financial. How do you find the money to make the projects you really want to do? I remember desperately wanting to go to Haiti but simply not having the money. That kind of frustration hurts when you genuinely care about your work.

The second challenge is criticism. I'm mentally tough. You're not going to break me that way. I can take criticism. But I often feel that many people criticizing my work don't actually understand what they're talking about. I have no problem if someone simply doesn't like my photographs—that's perfectly fine. But they haven't lived my life. They don't know my past.

Sometimes you think about all the money you've spent making bad pictures. That hurts too. But if you're strong enough, those disappointments become the motivation to keep going. The blows you take ultimately determine how strong you become.

Ulrich Aydt: How do you know whether you're good or not? Bruce Gilden: It depends on how honest you are with yourself. But not everyone actually knows what makes a good photograph.

There are famous photographers whose reputations rest almost entirely on their first body of work. Everything they produced afterward was mediocre, yet they're still regarded as great photographers. Personally, I don't agree.

7. Fear & Street Smarts

A chapter about working on the street.

I'll tell you one thing truthfully: if you feel comfortable, you can do a great many things.

To get a good picture, you have to be sneaky; otherwise, people know you're going to take the picture, and their attitude changes.

You don't have to be a good person to make great work. In fact, sometimes being too nice gets in the way of making truly powerful photographs.

You're always afraid. You have to conquer your own fears. I've worked in a lot of dangerous places. In Tijuana, someone was shot just a block away from me. You have to be street-smart. You can't take pictures everywhere. You have to read the situation.

What I did—and what street photographers should strive to do—is discover what they genuinely like and what they're actually capable of doing. If you're afraid to photograph people, then you simply can't get that close.

Street smarts also mean figuring out who's not going to knock your head off. That's true whether you're working thirty feet away or one foot away. If I'm comfortable working one foot away, I can actually have fewer problems than someone who's thirty feet away.

I wouldn't go anywhere I didn't feel confident. If I feel confident, I'm fine.

Martin Parr: You're known for being pretty fearless on the street. What's your secret? How are you able to get so close when other people are intimidated or simply too shy? Bruce Gilden: Well, I wouldn't say I'm fearless. I'd say I'm knowledgeable, and I trust my streetwise instincts. I've always been good at reading situations. People don't realize that's a big part of what enables me to do what I do. I also have a good bedside manner. I'm able to size up a situation and decide whether I can take it any further.

8. Influences

A chapter about influcences.

Of the four photographers I admired most—William Klein, Lisette Model, Shōmei Tōmatsu, and Ed van der Elsken—I truly loved the work of Tōmatsu and Van der Elsken, while I never really liked Klein or Model as people. But that never changed my opinion of their photographs.

The photographs I responded to most were probably those made by photographers of the New York Photo League.

9. Photography and Life

A chapter about photography and life.

You have to have something to give. I had a tough childhood and suffered a great deal emotionally. For me, photography is a catharsis.

I was addicted to cocaine. I almost died because of it. That's why I can relate to the addicts I photograph.

Ulrich Aydt: How did your drug addiction influence your photography? Bruce Gilden: I honestly don't know. The only thing I can say is that I had a very difficult childhood. I had to become emotionally tough. My father died when I was young, my mother later committed suicide, and then I went through my second period of drug abuse—my cocaine addiction. Back then I used to lie to myself. I'd think, "Cocaine helps me go out and make pictures." But that's simply not true. It never helped my photography. It never helped my art.

We're lifers. We do photography because we have to. Even if there were no money involved, we'd still do it. It's difficult to keep going. It isn't easy.

10. Aphorisms

Short, concise statements.

Max Blagg: What's the one thing you'd like people to know about Bruce Gilden? Bruce Gilden: What sums me up best is something Shōmei Tōmatsu once said: "If I lived seven lifetimes, I would be a photographer in every one of them."

We all steal. Some of us get caught.

Street photography is a young man's game.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

I'm known for taking pictures very close, and the older I get, the closer I get.