Brighton Beach
Bruce Davidson
American, born 1933
1960
A gelatin silver print street photograph in which Bruce Davidson quietly frames a fleeting Brighton Beach moment—two adults on a scooter with a child peering from a sidecar—to observe and humanize ordinary urban life.
What strikes you is the layered, close‑cropped immediacy: the riders’ profiles sliced against a blurred bus window of passengers, while the sheltered child’s direct, tentative gaze anchors the lower foreground.
Made in 1960, the print exemplifies Davidson’s contribution to mid‑century street photography by treating ephemeral, everyday encounters as emotionally rich, narrative scenes that helped expand documentary practice into a more intimate, artful mode.
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
10 7/8 × 7 1/4" (27.8 × 18.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Grace M. Mayer Fund
Accession
439.1966
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
