Bruce Davidson: Portraits

by Bruce Davidson (Photographer)

Something unusual happens when a photographer known for empathetic portraiture of the marginalized focuses his incisive eye on the lifestyles of the rich and famous. In Bruce Davidson's wildly diverse and revealing Portraits we see Joan Crawford hell-bent on force-feeding some poor soul, Diana Ross and The Supremes having a snowball fight, and an intense Samuel Beckett during a rehearsal of Waiting for Godot . Seen through Davidson's lens, Newt Gingrich is as goofy as Bobby Kennedy is impenetrable.

Genres: Photography, Art

72 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Bruce Davidson (born September 5, 1933 in Oak Park, Illinois) is an American photographer. He has been a member of the Magnum Photos agency since 1958. His photographs, notably those taken in Harlem, New York City, have been widely exhibited and published.

Reviews

[Chris Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

Celebrity worship is not my thing. Although all the portraits in this books are of the famous and renown, Davidson does not treat them like royalty. Instead, he finds something about them that is relatable and goes with that. Even more relatable, he does an informal interview at the start of the book in which he provides some anecdote or context to about half of the images.

And in present context, how refreshing it is to look at people who are not spray-tanned and pumped full of botox and silicone, then Photoshopped to unreal "perfection" and given an AI background.