Isaac Bashevis Singer, the Polish-born Yiddish writer and Nobel laureate, and New York documentary photographer Bruce Davidson collaborated on a surreal feature film made in 1973, entitled Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Nightmare and Mrs. Pupko’s Beard. This film was at once a documentary about Singer’s New York and a dramatization of one his short stories.  The film grew out of their friendship, as residents of the same building on the upper West Side of Manhattan, and their common interest in New York City street life. During and after production, Davidson made numerous portraits of Singer and also returned to the Lower East Side for a documentary series of photographs.    A selection of more than forty of the stunning images made between 1957 and 1990 is available here for the first time in Isaac Bashevis Singer and the Lower East Side: Photographs by Bruce Davidson. The book also includes portraits of Singer, stills from the film, the black and white portfolio known as The Garden Cafeteria, and selections from the Lower East Side series. The Garden Cafeteria was a collaboration depicting denizens of the East Broadway restaurant frequented by Singer during his trips to The Jewish Daily Forward. The portfolio has never been published nor exhibited in its entirety?until this volume. Included is an introduction by Singer himself on Davidson’s images, an in-depth interview with Davidson about his art, aesthetic and political views, and his Jewishness, and a reflective, contextual essay by Ilan Stavans on the relevance of this collaboration between the writer and the photographer. Through Davidson’s lens we see Singer’s literary world of Holocaust survivors and émigrés from Eastern Europe?a displaced culture in its twilight.    This book is a co-publication and appears in conjunction with an exhibition organized and presented by the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, on the occasion of the centennial celebration nationwide of Singer's birth in 2004.

Isaac Bashevis Singer And The Lower East Side

Arts & Photography

DAVIDSON, Bruce

SINGER, ISAAC BASHEVIS

Individual Artists

Terrace Books

In 1960, after spending an intense year photographing a notorious Brooklyn street gang called The Jokers, Bruce Davidson decided that he needed to get away from the tension, depression and potential violence connected to that work. He took on a commission to photograph Marilyn Monroe during the making of John Houston's film The Misfits in the Nevada desert, and then traveled to London on a commission for The Queen magazine. Edited by Jocelyn Stevens, The Queen was a magazine devoted to British lifestyle and Davidson was charged, with no specific agenda, to spend a couple of months touring England and Scotland to build a photographic portrait of the two countries. England/Scotland 1960 offers a visionary insight into the very heart of English and Scottish cultures. Reflecting a postwar era in which the revolutions of the 1960s had hardly yet filtered into the mainstream, Davidson's photographs reveal countries driven by difference--the extremes of city and country life, of the landed gentry and the common people--and lucidly portrays the mood of these times in personal and provocative imagery that is as fresh today as it was in that time. Published in this book for the first time in its entirety, this is one of undiscovered gems of late twentieth-century documentary photography.

BRUCE DAVIDSON (PHOTOFILE) /ALLEMAND/ITALIEN

Biographies & Memoirs

Thames&Hudson

Bruce Davidson Photographs

A photographic exploration of contemporary life includes realistic studies of a Parisian widow, a Brooklyn gang, Black Americans, New Jersey and other families, Welsh miners, a topless restaurant, and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge under construction

Bruce Davidson photographs

introduction by Henry Geldzahler

Photography & Video

Agrinde Publications Ltd.

EAST 100TH STREET

Harvard U. Press

Nestled in the foothills of Massachusetts, Sirius Community celebrates 40 years this year as one of the longest-standing Intentional Communities in the United States. Last fall, Sirius lost its co-founding face of the community Bruce Davidson. A charismatic leader since day one, Bruce interacted with each guest and visitor with stories of wisdom and humor. Armed with only a dream and faith in a divine calling, but no address and little money, he, along with other founding members, persisted and built a community. Through late night nail pounding, confronting interpersonal conflict, crippling lawsuits, unwavering tenacity, and abundant contributions from countless others at Sirius he has left a legacy that touched the lives of many. How has Sirius survived and continued to blossom into a thriving community against all odds? What are the secrets of success? In this new book, compiled from recorded interviews with Bruce two years before he died, he shares personal struggle and insight in his role of leadership. His stories will make you laugh and cry as he dances between personal life experiences and community wisdom. After falling 50 feet out of a tree, almost dying and breaking his back, he takes us with him on his own personal journey. The wisdom and challenges he faced over the course of his seven-year illness are illuminated in his words. He lays out the mistakes and perseverance, the tragedies and miracles as he outlines the history and construction of Sirius both physically and spiritually. He speaks of the spirituality in all of us, how group process aligns us with our truth, and finding paths through conflict. While sometimes successful and other times full of frustration and difficulty, he never gave up on a 40-year experiment called community. Co-edited by Devin Lafferty, former community member, and Llani Davidson, Bruce's daughter. If you have landed at Sirius some time in your life, are considering community living, face challenges in your own community, or have an interest in your own personal growth, this book offers new wisdom on the human condition.

Sirius: Growth in Community through the Power of Spirit

Religion & Spirituality

Sirius Community, Inc

Following the success of his series of grim photographs of the circus world and of the bleak lives of urban youth in Brooklyn, Bruce Davidson turned his lens to England and Scotland. For three months he traversed the country, recording both the sights of a disappearing life and the new realities of the welfare state, peace marchers, teddy boys, Room at the Top, Jimmy Porter and the red brick universities. The resulting series of photographs constitute a classic work of photography and a moving, evocative portrait of a bygone Britain. They were showcased along with Davidson's other photographic essays in a 1963 exhibition of Davidson's work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Bruce Davidson: England And Scotland 1960

Harry N.Abrams, Inc.

Photographs show the people who ride New York's subways, including the young, old, tourists, commuters, the homeless, and thieves

Subway

Davidson, B.

Aperture

Inscribed and signed by William Eggleston. An excellent copy.

Brooklyn Gang: Summer 1959

Twin Palms Pub

Signed by Bruce Davidson. Beautifully designed and reproduced using the sheet fed gravure method, this collection of Bruce Davidson's photos of a Brooklyn gang were taken in the the 1950's and are here gathered in book form for the first time. This book was limited to 4,000 copies.

Brooklyn Gang

Woody, Jack

On May 25, 1961, Bruce Davison joined a group of Freedom Riders traveling by bus from Montgomery, Alabama to Jackson, Mississippi. The actions of these youths challenged and disobeyed federal laws allowing for integrated interstate bus travel. These historic episodes, which ended in violence and arrests, marked the beginning of Davidson's exploration into the heart and soul of the civil rights movement in the United States during the years 1961-1965. In 1962, Davidson received a Guggenheim Fellowship and continued documenting the era, including an early Malcolm X rally in Harlem, steel workers in Chicago, a Ku Klux Klan cross burning near Atlanta, farm migrant camps in South Carolina, cotton picking in Mississippi, protest demonstrations in Birmingham, and the heroic Selma March that led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was instrumental in changing the political power base in the segregated Southern states. In the 140 photographs collected here, many of which have never before been published, we see intimate and revealing portraits of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and other leaders made by Davidson during those turbulent times. These images describe the mood that prevailed during the civil rights movement with a lyrical imagery that is both poignant and profound. As Davidson bears witness to these historical events, and documents the degradation and segregation that were endured, he gives testimony to the struggle for freedom, equality, justice, and human dignity.

Time of Change: Civil Rights Photographs, 1961-1965

LEWIS, John

Willis, Deborah

St. Ann's Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by DAVIDSON, Bruce. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by DAVIDSON, Bruce