
Bruce Gilden spent four days photographing people at New York's Brighton Beach -- a colorful neighborhood not too far from his own home.

Gilden wandered the streets with a small Leica camera, and he snapped photos when he spotted a character.

For decades, Gilden shot in black and white. For the last two years, he says, he sees in color.

Brighton Beach has it all -- wild prints on shirts and dresses, fluorescent bathing suits that don't exactly fit, garish makeup that's been lovingly applied the same way for 50 years.

A woman and her dog on the beach.

Last October, Gilden brought a translator along because so few people in the neighborhood speak English -- or at least, he says, they pretend they don't.

"I have a lot of energy in my pictures," Gilden said. "With those people, there's a lot of energy. They're shopping, shopping, shopping. They go with their carts, and their red lipstick and their bright clothes."

Most people were very nice, Gilden said. Some wanted to take his head off.

Street photography is like playing sports, Gilden said. "You don't have time to think. You act and react."

"I shoot what's interesting," Gilden said. "All I'm about is visual."

After years of shooting gangsters, revelers and whoever happens to be out and about, it all unfolds so quickly that almost nobody makes a fuss, Gilden says.


