Bruce Davidson: In Color - (Hardcover)

About the Book

This volume presents Bruce Davidsons personal selections from his lesser-known color archive. Ranging from a period of fifty-six years and counting, these images are representative of the photographers color career. Assignments from various magazines (Vogue, National Geographic, Life magazine) and commercial projects led him to photograph fashion (early 1960s), the Shah of Iran with his family (1964), keepers of French monuments (1988), the supermodel Kylie Bax (1997), and college cheerleaders (1989). He photographed in India and China, but also at home in New York, in Chicago, and along the Pacific Coast Highway. In 1968, Michelangelo Antonioni invited him to document the making of his film Zabriskie Point. Davidson also continued to pursue personal projects, e.g. photographing the Yiddish writer and Nobel Prize laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer (197275), the New York City subway (1980), and Katzs Delicatessen (2004). Often staying on in a country after an official assignment, he documented Welsh coalfields, family holidays in Marthas Vineyard, and travelled through Patagonia and Mexico.

Book Synopsis

This volume presents Bruce Davidson's personal selections from his lesser-known color archive, from a period of nearly 60 years. Assignments from various magazines including Vogue, National Geographic and Life, as well as commercial projects led Davidson to photograph subjects as diverse as fashion (in the early 1960s), the Shah of Iran with his family (1964), keepers of French monuments (1988), the supermodel Kylie Bax (1997) and college cheerleaders (1989). He photographed in India and China, but also at home in New York, in Chicago and along the Pacific Coast Highway. In 1968, Michelangelo Antonioni invited Davidson to document the making of his film Zabriskie Point. Davidson also continued to pursue personal projects, such as photographing the Yiddish writer and Nobel Prize laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer (1972-75), the New York City subway (1980) and Katz's Delicatessen (2004). Often staying on in a country after an official assignment, Davidson documented Welsh coalfields, family holidays in Martha's Vineyard and travelled through Patagonia and Mexico.

Review Quotes

Throughout the book, Davidson reveals the ways that color photography can be used to inform and enhance our understanding of life.--Sara Rosen "Blind"

A selection of rarely seen color photographs selected by Davidson himself, Steidl's monograph is a vibrant survey of commercial, fashion and documentary work.--Phil Bicker "TIME Lightbox"

In Color makes clear that resorting to chromatic film was never an after-thought for Davidson, nor was it an exceptional one-off reserved to Subway, a series he produced in the 1980s. The book opens with photographs taken as early as 1957 and spans his entire career. It also brings to light the variety of styles he embraced, from anthropological studies à la National Geographic of faraway lands to romantic shots of his family's vacations in Martha's Vineyard, before closing with an outlandish look at Katz's Delicatessen in New York City.--Laurence Butet-Roch "TIME Lightbox"

Ranging from street scenes to fashion shoots to documentary projects, the retrospective shows off his versatility as a visual stylist and wry social commentator.--Jack Crager "American Photo"

Spanning almost the entirety of his remarkable career and encompassing the full spectrum of styles that he purveyed: from editorial and commercial works (captured on assignment for, among others, Vogue, Life Magazine, and National Geographic) personal, documentary projects, and candid depictions of quotidian life across the globe, In Color is the only extensive retrospective of his chromatic output ever published--Josh Bright "Independent Photographer"