Untitled (Couple on the Platform), from the series Subway, 1980

First published by Aperture in 1986, Bruce Davidson’s Subway, a classic of photographic literature, has garnered critical acclaim both as a document of a unique moment in the cultural fabric of New York City and for its phenomenal use of extremes of color and shadow set against flash-lit skin. This depiction of young love on the New York City subway platform is a newly included photograph from this seminal series, published for the first time in the third edition of Subway. In Davidson's own words, "the people in the subway, their flesh juxtaposed against the graffiti, the penetrating effect of the strobe light itself, and even the hollow darkness of the tunnels, inspired an aesthetic that goes unnoticed by passengers who are trapped underground, hiding behind masks, and closed off from each other." This specially produced archival pigment ink print was printed under the artist’s supervision at Shoot Digital, New York.

Archival Pigment Print
Paper Size: 9 x 11 15/16 inches
Image Size: 7 5/16 x 11 inches
Edition of 50 and 5 Artist’s Proofs
Signed and numbered by the artist

Bruce Davidson (b. 1933, Oak Park, Illinois) is among America’s most influential documentary photographers. He became a member of Magnum Photos in 1958; received a Guggenheim Fellowship to document the civil rights movement in 1962; and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in 1962 and 1980, when he began his startling color essay Subway. His work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Museum de Tokyo, Paris; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; and the Aperture Gallery, New York.