October 6 – 29, 1988
1984. It was night time when I arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti for the first time. Driving in with the headlights illuminating people racing in front of the car, I turned to my companion and said “Where have I been my whole life?”. I knew instantly that I had found fertile ground for my photography.
Between 1984 and 2011, I made 22 trips (which amounted to one year of taking photographs). Amongst many other publications, my work in Haiti has been published in two monographs: Haiti, 1996, Dewi Lewis Publishing and 4 other publishers (European Publishers Award)… and Haiti, 2023, Atelier EXB France.
Over more than 50 years Bruce Gilden has honed his immediately recognizable street photography style: up close, emotionally engaging, and real photographs of real people. From his trademark, flash-lit black and white street scenes to his now equally identifiable series of face portraits in color, Gilden’s work distills the variety, character and motion of the street.
“I’m known for taking pictures very close,” says Gilden of his practice.“and the older I get, the closer I get.”
Bruce Gilden was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1946. After briefly studying sociology at Penn State University he quit college and decided to become a photographer in 1967. Aside from taking a few evening classes at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Gilden largely considers himself to be self-taught.
Although Gilden cut his teeth on the sidewalks of New York City where he grew up, he has since made significant bodies of work in Haiti, Japan, England, France, Ireland, India, and the USA.
Along with his acclaimed personal projects, Gilden has worked on numerous commissions for clients including Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Balenciaga, RATP Parisian transportation system, Vanity Fair, and New York Times Magazine.
Gilden is the recipient of many awards and grants for his work, including several National Endowments for the Arts fellowships, the New York State Foundation for the Arts, Japan Foundation Artist Fellowship and in 2013 a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship. Since the seventies, his work has been exhibited in museums and galleries all over the world.
Bruce Gilden has published more than 31 books of his work: From Facing New York in 1992, to Coney Island, GO, Face, Lost and Found, Cherry Blossom, Black Country, as well as most recently The Circuit and Haiti.
Gilden joined Magnum Photos in 1998. He lives in Beacon, New York.