Bruce Gilden
PhotographerKnown for:
flash-lit street photography in New York
Education:
Self-taught photographer
Bruce Gilden has photographed the streets of New York since the 1970s, working at extremely close range and using a handheld flash that illuminates his subjects in the fraction of a second before they can react. His book Facing New York (1992) collected twenty years of street work. He joined Magnum Photos in 1998 and has subsequently produced long-form projects on yakuza in Japan and motorcycle gangs in the American South.
Bruce Gilden's Gear List(2)
Leica
Connection Source
ShooterfilesInterview
Connection note
Gilden has worked with Leica rangefinders throughout his street photography career; the M6 is documented in accounts of his working practice and in Magnum retrospectives of his New York and Japan projects.
Product description
The M6, produced from 1984 to 1998, was the first M-series Leica to include a through-the-lens exposure meter. It retained the mechanical shutter and M bayonet mount of earlier cameras, maintaining full compatibility with decades of Leica M lenses.
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Last updated March 20, 2026
