Task 8 Derby Format Festival -Head On, Bruce Gilden.

Bruce Gilden and the Documentary photograph. 

Head On, Derby Format Festival.
© Bruce Gilden.

Bruce Gilden was commissioned for the Derby Film Festival to document the people of Derby.

Gilden's technique is to roam the streets, looking for individuals that he considers to 

have a strong persona - people who stand out from the norm.

The individuals he picks, or you could say 'targets', are unique in that they have a distinctive look that could seen as idiosyncratic or unorthodox; perhaps they have the look of loneliness and poverty, or eccentricity and wealth.

The defining feature, and the success, that Gilden has in locating and documenting these characters could be very difficult to pin down for those less observant of the human condition. But it is Gilden's ability to notice the peculiar in the everyday street scene that makes him so impressive and remarkable.

His technique is to go unnoticed by his chosen subject: he either waits for the subject to pass as closely as possible to him or he'll wander by, keeping his camera concealed. As soon as the subject is close enough, he'll shoot, normally with a flash. The flash catches people by surprise, further extenuating their features and leading to less than flattering portraits. 

Gilden says 'I'm known for taking pictures very close, and the older I get, the closer I get'.  

Head On, Derby Film Festival.
© Bruce Gilden.

Looking at Gilden's imagery within the critical framework, there can little doubt that he intends to document the individual without their express consent or prior knowledge; there is something slightly voyeristic in this style of photography.

Gilden could be seen as a watcher or observer who separates himself from the norm of 'street life' to be able to observe it - to be the voyeur of the great mass that is humanity on the move, going places, dressed accordingly, looking 'normal'.

Gilden's has a mastery of voyeurism, an ability to spot the un-normal for us, 'the viewer', to gaze over and to ponder, the oddity, the unconventionality, the bizarre and the kookiness: that is his talent to document.