As of this comment this video only has 265 likes. 25 minutes of Bruce Gilden talking about photography and only 265 likes. Where the hell is everybody???
Its funny he said he wasn't a big fan of Antonioni but his framing is just in the style of Antonioni. The photo at 7:30 is a clear example. Maybe we aren't really aware of our influences?
You might not like the guy, I'm not a fan of his personality, but it's just that that is the key to unlock access to each of the opportunities to take each picture, the moment and the subject. Sadly, so many antisocial kids pretend to be him when they take up photography. Too late kids, he did it so you don't have to.
To Gilden, regarding the laughing young woman who lost her leg...in my book, her laughter, particularly under those circumstances, is evidence of God, and oddly enough, her laughter probably would not be as meaningful to her or to you had she not suffered such a tragedy. As you should well know, as a photographer, the beauty that transcends ugliness is the most meaningful...and for a reason that none of us authored.
He's not a photographer. He's a man with a camera who has perfected one technique- shove a camera into an unsuspecting passerby's face, shoot with an off the camera flash, making sure to use a focal length that distorts and... Presto! You have a Gilden grotesque. He sucks.
I think taking pictures when someone doesn’t know is fine, maybe just let them know after but if you get someone to pose for a picture it just becomes fake, taking a picture of someone who doesn’t know your doing that captures the true emotion a person is feeling in that moment, if they pose and smile it’s fake, they are putting on the face they want people to see instead of how they truly feel in that moment
I appreciate the argument, but this technique allows him to capture snapshots of people before they realize a photograph is being taken. They're up-close, not-posed snapshots of interesting characters. I don't really like the way he gets these shots but I'm glad they exist.
