South Carolina
Bruce Davidson
American, born 1933
1962
A gelatin silver print from Bruce Davidson’s 1962 South Carolina series that records a quiet, intimate moment between cotton-field workers, aiming to expose the dignity and hardship of rural labor in the American South.
You notice the tactile contrast—the bright, raw cotton at their feet, the worn clothing and weathered hands—and the small, focused exchange between the two figures set against a broad, low horizon that feels both ordinary and charged.
Made amid the civil-rights era, this empathetic documentary image helped expand photography’s role in social observation by privileging sustained, close attention to marginalized lives over detached reportage.
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
9 7/16 × 6 15/16" (24.0 × 17.7 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the artist
Accession
437.1966
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
