Bruce Davidson's Subway

Bruce Davidson’s Subway, is full of deeply colorful photographs of the wildly expressive people who fill the trains and the platforms, as well as some views from the train. Overall, the photographs are full of warm tones, and have a dark feeling to them, which gives you the feeling that you’ve been led into this under ground world.

Davidson appears to be most interested in the people who ride these graffiti-filled trains, and their expressions. Often, the area around their faces and bodies will fall into shadow, and the person or people will become illuminated. Many of these people seem to be totally unaware of the camera, and have a relaxed face, where nothing looks controlled, and they seem to be in their own world, as people usually do on the train. Some people are clearly aware and posing, with huge smiles at the camera.

It is interesting how everything Davidson does to create these images help them appear completely realistic. There is nothing fake about them. When I looked through these photographs, I realized that the content looked like something I would see on the trains, and the straight on camera flash resembles the train coming out of the tunnel; how you can only see the front of the train, and everything around it is dark. Also, it makes it look like a photograph that is not professionally done, which is more relatable. However, then I reached the last half of the book, and the photographs took a drastic turn. Suddenly, there are photos of a man getting arrested, blood on the side of a train car, a naked middle-aged man standing up in the middle of the car, an injured man being treated by paramedics, a man pointing a gun at someone’s head… In these photos, the straight on camera flash changes from giving a relatable feeling to giving the feeling of a scary movie, or a crime scene at night. After these photographs, the book moves back to being simply an observer, and not a witness. It actually moves on to a much more relaxing feeling. The ending photographs all include a sunset in one form or another, giving it the feeling of a day winding down, just as the book is winding down.

Davidson’s book is interesting because it shows all sides to the subway. It shows people sitting thoughtlessly, waiting to get off; people waiting to get on; a crowd of hands holding onto poles; subway violence; friendly people having a silent conversation with the camera; someone trying to squeeze through the closing doors; the conductor; and views out of the window at the Statue of Liberty, World Trade Center, and the changing sky. It clearly can be the cycle of a day in the subway system because he begins the book with the conductor, pulling into the station, and ends it looking across the train tracks at a train with a brilliant sunset backing it up. This cycle of a day makes me feel satisfied because it feels like he showed me everything there was to see in one day.