DAVIDSON, Bruce - England / Scotland, 1960

Background information

"In 1960, after completing an intense year photographing a notorious Brooklyn street gang called 'The Jokers', Bruce DAVIDSON decided that he needed to remove himself from the tension, depression, and potential violence connected to that work.
He was given an assignment to photograph Marilyn Monroe during the making of John Houston's film The Misfits in the Nevada desert, and then travelled to London on a special commission for The Queen magazine.

Edited by Jocelyn Stevens, The Queen was a magazine devoted to British life-style, and Davidson was charged, with no specific agenda, to spend a couple of months touring England and Scotland to build a visual portrait of the two countries.

'England/Scotland 1960' offers a poetic insight into the very heart of English and Scottish cultures. Reflecting a post-war era in which the revolutions of the 1960s had hardly yet filtered into the mainstream,

The photographs by Bruce DAVIDSON reveal countries riven by difference — the extremes of city and country life, of the landed gentry and the common people — and lucidly portrays the mood of these times in a personal and provocative imagery that is as fresh today as it was in that time.

Published in this book for the first time in its entirety, this is one of the undiscovered gems of late 20th century documentary photography." (publisher's note, © Steidl Verlag, 2005)

About US-american Magnum photographer, Bruce DAVIDSON (b.1933, in Oak Park)

Photo books by Bruce DAVIDSON