East 100th Street

Life in Harlem (1960's Race Riots)

Before Davidson took an interest in Harlem, many civil rights movements/ protests happened inside the city limits. Throughout the '60s, riots became an annual occurrence, with many activists being arrested or injured during the riots. The riots came about due to the lack of proper housing, schooling, and job opportunities. Many groups came about during the '60s, advocating for change and new policies. Some were peaceful, and other groups such as the Black Panthers advocated for the use of violence in pursuit of change. The Black Panthers organized in Harlem in 1966, the same year Bruce Davidson started photographing life in Harlem in an attempt for change and reformation to come about in the city. Quite often, Boycotts to walk out of schools would happen, hoping to instill change into the school system of Harlem. More often than not, protests in Harlem became riots. The media doesn't take too well any type of violent protest, even if it started out as peaceful. Here we see the installment of "visual sociology", the idea of taking pictures to convey a message rather than trying to explain it through an essay, let alone protest, and become bombarded with a million sides of media coverage.  Pictures are both harder and easier to read, one could make their own interpretation or feel as though the image isn't giving them enough to work with to draw any type of conclusion. 

Taking the Photos

During Bruce Davidson’s two-year span of being on East 100th Street in Harlem, while taking photos seen in the collection he slowly became close with those he photographed through the method of his photography. Bruce used a 16mm camera, quite a "clunky" camera to have to carry around all day. However Bruce did this on purpose, he had no problem with being seen taking pictures and preferred people know that he was taking one of them. He wanted to be in a sense, personal with those he was taking photos of, Bruce stated that "I didn't want to be the unobserved observer. I wanted to be with my subjects face to face." This collection of photojournalism took Bruce two years to print, many of the pictures were taken in 1966, with his project being completed in 1968 but none of the pictures were published until 1970. Davidson would have been there for a lot of the riots and protests throughout the rest of the city. Bruce, like the protesters, was there to install change in the city by taking photos, he was primarily focused on the improvement of the housing situation as many pictures of his suggest. Photos of crumbling houses and unkempt streets were very common in Davidson’s work.

Publication of East 100th Street

This two-year, photo-based documentation on the poverty-stricken block of East Harlem Once all photos were published from the two-year immersion into Harlem society, most if not all of those pictured in the photos were offered tickets to see the showing of East 100th Street in the Museum of Modern Art. After publication, critics were split on how to feel about the photos, some saying it made Harlem “look bad” while others said it didn't look bad enough, the downfall of visual sociology where neither side will be happy with the results. Davidson's publication of the pictures helped those in Harlem by providing proof that the city needed help and being able to take the now physical evidence to those who mattered. However, in the years following Bruce Davidson’s work, Harlem got exponentially worse, to no fault of his own. With a high infant mortality rate, the decline in housing infrastructure as well as a crashing economy that mostly relied on a cash flow. However, the unfortunate and cruel circumstances caused little to no ripples in the friendships created from the photos. Davidson has remarked that he is still friends with some of those that he met in Harlem all those years ago.

My Thoughts: 

The reason that I offered that background concerning those three events is that it helps me to explain what East 100th Street was doing socially and politically when Bruce Davidson created it. Davidson was not only just a photographer but a sort of visual sociologist, the idea of his want to spread awareness through photography really helps me hone in on this point. Not only did I interpret this collection as a call to action by Bruce, but in my own mind, seeing the people so happy yet living in horrible conditions really helped me see the idea of sexuality not just being a lustful or sensual idea. But one of self and happiness with expression, expressing love and happiness isn’t inherently sexual but the “Tender, playful, romantic and lucidly human”(Magnum) aspect to me exposes a side based on sexuality. I see the Harlem Race Riots as a significant point in the creation of East 100th Street, we see a large portion of Black Americans in Harlem upset about their living, schooling, and working situations. This causes large protests, some of which end in violence, the media hates violent protests and usually calls everyone involved “Crazy” or “a threat to civilization.” However, I see the events as a calling point for Bruce Davidson, to go to Harlem and find a block that looks the worst, and take pictures of it to show those in charge that change is needed. This is part of the creation of Visual Sociology. I find the personal aspect of Bruce’s photos very appealing, it shows you things you wouldn’t normally see unless you lived there. I also find his long-lasting connection with those who he photographed quite endearing. We can see, however, that things didn’t immediately work out so well for Harlem. Sometimes calls to action don’t work as well as we’d like them to, which is why protests still continued in Harlem until more problems were fixed than not.

Citations:

Genova, Alexandra. “Bruce Davidson's East 100th Street: Harlem, 50 Years on • Magnum Photos Magnum Photos.” Magnum Photos, 31 Aug. 2018, https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/society-arts-culture/bruce-da….

Date Accessed: April 4th, 2023

 "History of Harlem" Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Harlem

Date Accessed: April 4th, 2023