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Bruce Davidson's photography has captured American life for over fifty years, from the Civil Rights Movement to life in Harlem during the 1990s. One of his greatest fans, actor Matt Dillon, joined Davidson for a recent event at the Library. For this week's episode of the New York Public Library, we're proud to present Davidson and Dillon discussing New York, subverted expectations, and photographs that have remained influential.

Some of the most poignant photographs Davidson has shot are those featuring Harlem. He recalled visiting the neighborhood years ago when he was first interested in it as a subject:

"I was told that East 100th Street was in really bad shape, that was one of the worst blocks in the city in terms of living space, not in terms of spirit, but in terms of the physical, you know, run-down tenements. And one of the editors at Magnum had a relative that lived on the block, was a minister, so he set me up with and I met with the Citizens’ Committee, which was storefront, and they said, 'Well, photographers come in here all the time, they take pictures, we never see the pictures, and also nothing ever changes.' And I said, 'Well, I work a little differently. If you allow me to take a picture of a family of ten, I will show you beautiful a photograph can be.' And that’s what I did. And they allowed me. They gave me an escort at first, José Rosa, a young seventeen-year-old activist in the neighborhood, until I felt comfortable to go off by myself, which I did. It took two years... I was just happy to explore. I didn’t have an agenda of any kind, to see the people, to try to come close to their pain and their passion."

In New York, Davidson also found inspiration in the subway. He described one subject who surprised him:

"I remember one scene in there, in the subway, where there was a man, crowded rush hour, with a man with packed eggs, eyes that were droopy, you know, and a hat, a black hat, a homburg, and I was about eighteen inches from him and I took a picture at the one angle, and I said, 'I hope I didn’t disturb you, but I just, you looked so great right there,' and he said, 'You didn’t disturb me, I’m totally blind.' I said, 'How do you know when to get off?' 'I count the doors, so many doors on the left, so many on the right.' So, that is to say, you can’t always be right about your observation."

The event concluded with Dillon's remarks on Davidson's work. He explained that the photographs framed how he works as a director and photographer:

"Well, I mean, it’s impossible for it to not, you know, when you’re looking at photographs like these photographs, the composition to not wash over you and have an effect on you, and, you know, I’m not a photographer per se, and when I was looking at these photographs, it was when I was, you know, it was, you know, I was looking at them in research as an actor, you know, but I think they affected me, and it was funny because I was, you know, talking to a friend the other day and I said, you know, these, Bruce’s pictures have been with me for a long time, you know, they really have been with me for a long time, I said there were two photographers at that time, there was William Klein, and it was Bruce Davidson’s photographs, you know, at that time that had that impact on me and that later carried over into my work as a director and I started to look at things photographically, so I mean the pictures are very cinematic, you know, and I can identify with a lot of the things because I have taken pictures in my work, whether I’ve done work as a filmmaker and I’ve also done work taking photographs myself."

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