FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Exhibition: “Bruce Gilden: Coney Island”
Dates:  May 12 – July 9
Artist’s Reception: Wednesday, May 12, 6 – 8 PM

Amador Gallery is pleased to present Bruce Gilden’s celebrated photographs of Coney Island. Shot over the course of the late sixties, seventies and early eighties, the images illustrate the social and cultural changes that have occurred over time at Coney Island, while testifying to the almost quixotic and intransigent uniqueness of this famous neighborhood.

Gilden’s photography practice evolved in the years following the popularization of American street photography after the MoMA New Documents exhibition of 1967. His work certainly participates in a similar project to that of Arbus, Winogrand and Friedlander, in which the mechanical uniformity of the photographic medium highlights the enchanted and sometimes twisted or despondent nature of the photographed world. Gilden, however, articulates a stronger sense of engagement and participation. Whereas you might see Friedlander’s shadow in his photographs, Gilden gets close to his subjects, so close that he consistently seems present in the images without having to overtly suggest the fact. By stressing his presence, Gilden highlights his formal decisions and seems to construct a world that reflects back on himself: a portrait of the artist through the assembly of the series. In this way, the unique glimpses and peculiar characters presented in the photographs don’t seem castigated for their oddness, but rather appear like inflections of Gilden’s own personality, radiating a vibrancy that mediates the space between the viewer and the setting: the beaches and boardwalks of Coney Island. None of this denies the individuality of the figures. Rather it effectively collapses the critical distance between viewer, photographer and subject, establishing engaging relationships between these positions.

Of the figures in the photographs, it is most notable how they brazenly assert their physical form, unabashedly revealing their bodies and personalities. The setting complements these characteristics, as though it were built to be consumed by these bodies. The bright sand of the beach becomes a canvas upon which an excess of flesh unfurls. This surfeit of skin, whether that of skinny elderly men, lanky middle-aged women or heavyset couples, literally reflects the powerful summer sun, relaying its intensity to the camera and darkening these people’s bodies, making them—like the photograph—an index of this place. Thus, though many years are covered in these photographs, the personality of Coney Island remains consistent and gleefully uncompromising. 

Since 1998 Bruce Gilden has been a member of the preeminent photo coop Magnum Photos. He’s received numerous awards including several fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts and has published extensively. Having assembled several projects on Haiti, his most recent work documents the devastation of the recent earthquake on the tiny island nation.
Amador Gallery is located in the landmark Fuller Building at 41 East 57th Street on the 6th floor.  Gallery hours are 11 to 6 Tuesday through Saturday and by appointment.  For additional information, please contact the gallery at 212-759-6740, for more information visit www.amadorgallery.com or contact us at info@amadorgallery.com.