A Bruce Gilden photograph is distinctly familiar, edgy and usually not very comforting. His portraits bear an undeniable sense of physical closeness, where one is forced to see beauty the way Gilden sees it. That beauty isn’t predictably scenic or candied, rather harsh, even apocalyptic and desolate. Gilden has been photographing the city of Detroit since 2009, magnifying its tiniest traits and making its residing outsiders sociable by exposing them in his photographs. In a new exhibition, “Detroit: Against the Wind,” commissioned by Leica and due to open at the Leica Gallery Mayfair in London, Gilden takes his 2009 series forward as he closes in on Detroit’s disarray.No more than four decades ago, Detroit was America’s prodigy — a thriving epicenter of industrial growth, especially automobile manufacturing and Motown, the iconic record company. That fairytale followed a different ending. The houses lie bare now and back in 2013, the city even filed for bankruptcy. It is Gilden’s aggressive, graphic style of portrait-making that fits right in. His stark black-and-white photographs are forceful and yet, untiring. Even his subjects are on the margins of poverty and abuse but they refuse to give up and this is what keeps Gilden inspired as he revisits Detroit. Born in Brookyln, Gilden studied sociology and found his true calling as a photographer after watching Michelangelo Antonioni’s cult classic, “Blow-Up (1966).” Much like the fashion photographer in the film who discovers a magnified image of a terrifying event, Gilden too has been charmed by the idea of blowing up his subject’s faces, such that their realities are no longer hidden. “I instantly felt an affinity with the women and men I photographed in Detroit; a black Muslim selling newspapers, an ex-junkie, a church goer, a prostitute, a blues singer who has seen better days…the work I have been doing there is an ode to the city and its people. I’d go back again anytime,” says Gilden.His work has come under scrutiny by many critics, particularly for his candid and unapologetic style of photography. However, his genuine concern for the people he photographs hasn’t escaped them either. Gilden is not the traditional flâneur — he is an extrovert and a forceful one at that and this is what aids his visual approach, which is based on knowing the subject and not just observing them from a distance. The photographs in this exhibition stand testimony to his interest in the prosaic lives of Detroit’s residents. Through his expressive and dynamic style, he makes his subjects’ presence very cinematic. It is remarkable how Gilden makes the street so unique and desirable because every person screams out a story, leaving the viewer slightly uneasy, but excited and waiting for what comes next. The people appear so close that they could almost be in the same room as you, perhaps even bump into you as Gilden does into them.“Detroit: Against the Wind” opens on September 17, 2016 and runs through September 30, 2016 at the Leica Gallery Mayfair, LondonA Bruce Gilden photograph is distinctly familiar, edgy and usually not very comforting. His portraits bear an undeniable sense of physical closeness, where one is forced to see beauty the way Gilden sees it. That beauty isn’t predictably scenic or candied, rather harsh, even apocalyptic and desolate. Gilden has been photographing the city of Detroit since 2009, magnifying its tiniest traits and making its residing outsiders sociable by exposing them in his photographs. In a new exhibition, “Detroit: Against the Wind,” commissioned by Leica and due to open at the Leica Gallery Mayfair in London, Gilden takes his 2009 series forward as he closes in on Detroit’s disarray.No more than four decades ago, Detroit was America’s prodigy—a thriving epicenter of industrial growth, especially automobile manufacturing and Motown, the iconic record company. That fairytale followed a different ending. The houses lie bare now and back in 2013, the city even filed for bankruptcy. It is Gilden’s aggressive, graphic style of portrait-making that fits right in. His stark black-and-white photographs are forceful and yet, untiring. Even his subjects are on the margins of poverty and abuse but they refuse to give up and this is what keeps Gilden inspired as he revisits Detroit. Born in Brookyln, Gilden studied sociology and found his true calling as a photographer after watching Michelangelo Antonioni’s cult classic, “Blow-Up (1966).” Much like the fashion photographer in the film who discovers a magnified image of a terrifying event, Gilden too has been charmed by the idea of blowing up his subject’s faces, such that their realities are no longer hidden. “I instantly felt an affinity with the women and men I photographed in Detroit; a black Muslim selling newspapers, an ex-junkie, a church goer, a prostitute, a blues singer who has seen better days…the work I have been doing there is an ode to the city and its people. I’d go back again anytime,” says Gilden.His work has come under scrutiny by many critics, particularly for his candid and unapologetic style of photography. However, his genuine concern for the people he photographs hasn’t escaped them either. Gilden is not the traditional flâneur — he is an extrovert and a forceful one at that and this is what aids his visual approach, which is based on knowing the subject and not just observing them from a distance. The photographs in this exhibition stand testimony to his interest in the prosaic lives of Detroit’s residents. Through his expressive and dynamic style, he makes his subjects’ presence very cinematic. It is remarkable how Gilden makes the street so unique and desirable because every person screams out a story, leaving the viewer slightly uneasy, but excited and waiting for what comes next. The people appear so close that they could almost be in the same room as you, perhaps even bump into you as Gilden does into them.“Detroit: Against the Wind” opens on September 17, 2016 and runs through September 30, 2016 at the Leica Gallery Mayfair, London
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