SUBWAY
Bruce Davidson
Bruce Davidson: SUBWAY. New York City: Aperture, 1986. First edition. Oblong quarto. Stamped gray cloth. Photographically printed dust jacket. Unpaginated [88 pp.]. 60 color illustrations. Close inspection reveals a trace of wear. A nearly fine copy in a nearly fine dust jacket.
11.75 x 10 hard cover book with 88 pages and 60 color plates. Includes an afterword by Henry Geldzahler. Beautifully printed and bound in Italy.
From 1980 to 1985, Bruce Davidson explored and shot six hundred miles of New York subway tracks. In his words, "I wanted to transform this subway from its dark, degrading, and impersonal reality into images that open up our experience again to the color, sensuality, and vitality of the individual souls that ride it each day."
From the 2003 St. Anne's Press edition [2003]: Originally published in 1986, this dark, democratic environment provided the setting for the photographer's first extensive series in color. Subway riders are set against a gritty, graffiti-strewn background, displayed in tones Davidson described as "an iridescence like that I had seen in photographs of deep-sea fish." Never before has the subway been portrayed in such detail, revealing the interplay of its inner landscape and outer vistas. The images include lovers, commuters, tourists, families, and the homeless. From weary straphangers to languorous ladies in summer dresses to stalking predators, Davidson's compassionate vision illuminates the stubborn survival of humanity.