Bruce Davidson
[Photographer, b. 1933, Oak Park, Illinois, lives in New York.]

 I burn intensely, but with a slow flame, like an acetylene torch. What keeps you going is the passion that you have. 
 I felt that my mission in life was to make visible what appears to be invisible and I do that as someone who is blind and comes into a world and suddenly begins to see. 
 She ran up to her room and came down with this huge book of photographs called The Decisive Moment, a collection of images by Cartier-Bresson, and we sat together looking through all of the amazing photographs. I had never seen anything like it. She said to me, “I really love this photographer.” So, I said to myself, “If I could take pictures like this guy maybe she will love me too.” So, I went out and spent all my monthly allowance on a used Leica. I actually tried to imitate the imagery of Cartier-Bresson. Of course, it didn’t work. The young female student ran off with a history professor, and I was left with Cartier-Bresson. That’s what started me off. I began to take street photographs. 
 If I am looking for a story at all, it is in my relationship to the subject—the story that tells me, rather than that I tell. 
 I like discovery. I’m attracted to it. I like the feeling of going out, being at some place, looking in at something. Observation is important. 
 I’ve never been a photographer that loves sunshine. I love gloom.  
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