USA. Milwaukee. Wisconsin. 2017. Caleb, a farm boy. Photo Leica / Bruce Gilden exhibition at Photo London 2018.
As a camera and optics brand, Leica has been deeply involved in not only the production but the culture of photography since its inception. The brand’s passion for this art form is still something that it heavily involves itself in today. For Leica, photography has always been at the forefront of its thoughts and actions; Leica is photography. It is then befitting that for the third year running, Leica Camera will be the Official Partner of Photo London and is proud to host the Leica Collector’s Lounge.
This year will see a record number of exhibitors including 100 of the world’s leading galleries at the world-class photography fair which will showcase the very best of the past, present and future of photography to its international audience. Guests can attend from 17th – 20th May (press preview: 16th May) at Somerset House to experience new work by established masters and rare vintage pieces alongside work from emerging artists as well. Leica Camera will join these highly anticipated collections of work with their own exclusive exhibition: Farm Boys and Farm Girls USA by Magnum Photographer Bruce Gilden.
This year, Leica will be hosting its own lounge, the Leica Collector’s Lounge, which will be located in The Terrace Pavilion of Somerset House. Guests are invited to join the brand to experience Bruce Gilden’s exhibition, attend book signings, and discover more about Leica’s product range and history as the most iconic photography brand.
Bruce Gilden’s body of work, ‘Farm Boys and Farm Girls USA’, which was shot entirely on a Leica S System, will be exhibited for the very first time at the Leica Collector’s Lounge at Photo London 2018. Gilden will also be giving a talk in the Fair’s main auditorium on the 18th May from 7pm and will be hosting book signings at 4pm on 17th and 19th May.
Given the title of his new series, it’s interesting to note that Bruce Gilden is a self-professed “city boy” who has spent most of his career working in urban environments and who perhaps couldn’t be further removed from the ways of life of the agricultural community in Middle America. However, in 2014, as he was photographing at crowded state fairs, he came upon young people showcasing and selling their livestock and was instantly intrigued. It revealed an unfamiliar and fascinating world that took him “outside his comfort zone”.
This series is the first time in his life that Gilden’s photography focuses mainly on adolescents but perhaps this has something to do with the fact that he said he found them “more mature than their years”. Growing up with farm animals and being so close to life and death on a daily basis, he thinks “prepares you for your own.” In 2017, Gilden decided to continue his work on the farm kids. He followed them at state fairs and livestock exhibitions where they fiercely compete, and at educational conventions where they learn how to become successful members of the agricultural community.
Bruce Gilden Biography
Acclaimed street photographer with a unique style, Bruce Gilden was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1946. He first went to Penn State University but found his sociology courses too unstimulating for his temperament and so quit college and began to toy with the idea of being an actor. But in 1967, he decided to buy a camera and to become a photographer. Besides taking a few evening classes at the School of Visual Arts, Gilden is predominantly self-taught.
Right from childhood, he has always been fascinated by the life on the streets and the complicated and fascinating motion it involves, and this was the spark that inspired his first long-term personal projects, photographing in Coney Island and then during the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Since then, Bruce Gilden has continued to focus on strong characters and to apply Robert Capa’s mantra to his own work: “if the picture isn’t good enough, you aren’t close enough”.
Over the years he has produced long and detailed photographic projects in New York, Haiti, France, Ireland, India, Russia, Japan, England and now in America. Gilden has published 15 monographs of his work.
Bruce Gilden’s work has been exhibited widely around the world and is part of many permanent collections such as MOMA, New York, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and the Getty Museum. In March 2016, his recent work was exhibited in a group show, “Strange and Familiar, Britain as revealed by international photographers” at the Barbican Art Museum in London. Already the recipient of numerous grants and awards, Bruce Gilden became a Guggenheim Fellow in 2013. He joined Magnum Photos in 1998.
About Photo London
Photo London was created to give London an international photography event befitting the city’s status as a global cultural capital. Founded in 2015, it has already established itself as a world-class photography Fair and as a catalyst for London’s dynamic photography community. From the capital’s major museums to its auction houses, galleries large and small, right into the burgeoning creative community in the East End and South London, Photo London harnesses the city’s outstanding creative talent and brings the world’s leading photographers, curators, exhibitors and dealers together with the public to celebrate photography, the medium of our time.
About Leica Camera
Leica Camera AG is an internationally operating, premium-segment manufacturer of cameras and sport optics products. The legendary status of the Leica brand is founded on a long tradition of excellence in the construction of lenses. And today, in combination with innovative technologies, Leica products continue to guarantee better pictures in all situations in the worlds of visualisation and perception. Concurrently, Leica has been deeply involved in the culture of photography since the company’s inception and is still something that it heavily involves itself in today. For Leica, photography has always been at the forefront of its thoughts and actions; Leica is photography. Leica Camera AG has its headquarters in Wetzlar, in the state of Hesse in Germany, and a second production site in Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal. The company operates branch offices in Australia, China, France, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Singapore, South Korea, UK and the USA. New and innovative products have been the driving force behind the company’s positive development in recent years.
