Bruce Davidson - East 100th street

Magnum photographer Bruce Davidson is most notably known for his work on New York's Harlem, and photographing a series that he titled East 100th Street. The series was a two year documentation of an infamous block in East Harlem, in which he photographed the urban living of many families in the American ghetto. The photographs look very similar to the social documentary genre of photography, but what makes them Environmental Portraiture is Davidson's careful set up of composition, lighting and posing of the subjects, and the way in which he has totally controlled and set up each photograph in a way in which it appears to be documentary.

These emotional photographs truly venture into the lives of the families and their everyday issues of poverty, drug abuse, crime and abandonment. I particularly admire the way that Davidson notices small, intricate details within the image, and isn't afraid of overcrowding the frame with details of their lives. Davidson's images appear to have a lot of contrast between the black and white shades which exaggerate the shadows and highlights and compliment his subject matter well; this contrasting affect is something that I would like to achieve with my own work in upcoming shoots for this project.