Bruce Davidson

Heroes, idols, and enemies revealed as never before. What happens when a photographer known for his empathetic portraiture of the marginalized or downtrodden suddenly focuses his extraordinary eye on the lifestyles of the rich and the famous? In Bruce Davidson's wildly diverse and typically revealing Personalities witness an aggressive Joan Crawford, apparently hell-bent on force-feeding some poor soul the unwavering intensity of Samuel Beckett during a rehearsal of Waiting for Godot and Diana Ross and the Supremes in the midst of a snowball fight or relaxing backstage at the Apollo. Seen through Davidson's lens, Newt Gingrich looks as goofy as Bobby Kennedy seems impenetrable. From his portraits of East One Hundredth Street in Harlem, to subway riders in Subway, or the denizens of Central Park in his most recent, widely acclaimed Aperture Book, Central Park, Davidson has always established an intuitive rapport with his subjects. Now, for the first time, we see him take on some of our favorite and most controversial personalities.