Brooklyn Gang

Bruce Davidson

1959 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

In spring 1959 Bruce Davidson sought out a Brooklyn gang called the Jokers after reading an article about them in the New York Times and spent the next year photographing their daily lives. At a time when films such as Rebel Without a Cause (1955) celebrated teenage resistance to conformity and popular literature agonized over juvenile delinquency, Davidson's photographs personalized the issues. His work revealed the notorious South Brooklyn gang as a tight-knit band of misfits whose vulnerability was as powerful as the wall of toughness that surrounded it. Theirs was a world where appearance was the paramount defense against the world: greased hair, rolled-up T-shirts, sunglasses, Coke, cigarettes, and tattoos announced the teenagers' rejection of the gray-flannel, organization-man lifestyle. In this image, Davidson joins the group at one of their haunts. His camera notes the hipsters' cultural code and echoes its posture of resistance; the central subject-the gang leader-is "too close" to the camera, out-of-focus and cropped by the edges of the frame. While Popular Photography might deem this "poor technique," here it is the perfect match for the ragged, haphazard lifestyle of the "rebels."

Artist

Bruce Davidson

Date

1959

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2004