Artwork Page for Untitled (40088)

Details / Information for Untitled (40088)

Series Title: Brooklyn Gang

Untitled (40088)

1959

Bruce Davidson

(American, b. 1933)
Culture
America
Medium
gelatin silver print
Measurements
Paper: 35.6 x 27.9 cm (14 x 11 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of an anonymous donor 2018.742
Copyright
© Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

Davidson’s series Brooklyn Gang was inspired by a news story he read about a teenage gang called the Jokers.

Description

“The hole,” a space 3½ feet wide by 30 feet long between two buildings, was one of the places where the Jokers went to drink beer, smoke pot, and occasionally pop a pill. “We used to have the big guys buy full quarts of beer,” remembered Bob Powers. “Then we’d go down in the hole, open one at a time, and pass it around until they were empty.” A pipe six feet above the bottom of the hole “was like our ‘high bar,’” recalled Powers, seen here swinging on it. “We’d all do tricks and flips on this thing.”
A vertically oriented black-and-white photograph depicts two youths with light skin tones in a narrow alley. In the foreground, a youth hangs from a horizontal pipe spanning a stone wall on our left and a brick wall on our right. He faces us with a furrowed brow. Behind him, another youth perches atop the pipe. Bright light from above illuminates the scene, casting shadows across the masonry.

Untitled (40088)

1959

Bruce Davidson

(American, b. 1933)
America

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