Bruce Wrighton
June 29, 2009
The way I find interesting material for this blog is that I just see things online or in an exhibition, do some research and post it. With Bruce Wrighton it was both: I saw pictures of him in a blog some time ago, and only shortly after that I saw his prints on the wall at the booth of Laurence Miller Galery at the Art Cologne. From that moment I have to say this photographer was and is one of my favourite photographers.
Bruce Wrighton (born 1950, died 1988) lived in Binghampton, New York, and there is only very little information on him and his work available online. He is not a well known documentary photographer (yet) and as he died way too young there is only limited material to show, but that what he produced is in my opinion really strong. At the Art Cologne I had the chance to speak to his gallerist and he told me that many years ago, he had shown Wrighton’s Car series in his gallery. And then only a few years ago, the gallerist approached Wrightons widow and asked if there were more photographs, so they “found” two more series, portraits and interiors. Laurence Miller Gallery then in late 2008 showed the “new” material and Bruce Wrighton obviously got some acclaim posthumously.
Here some of his portraits:
About his picture, Wrighton said:
“Yesterday I saw a parking attendant who had just the right look in his eyes. I didn’t even introduce myself, I said, “Can I take your picture?” And either because I was so forceful, or he was so open, or there was something in my sincerity, he just said, “Sure”.
He was a fairly young kid. Weeping eyes. Eyes that really spoke of the pain of having to struggle versus really wanting to find a home. As I chatted with him as I was making the picture–again setting up the 8 by 10 is not like the snap-snap of an SLR. It takes 15 minutes to get the whole thing together. It’s a commitment and it’s building a relationship.
I find that important because I need to develop some kind of rapport with these people. So during that rapport building session, he mentioned he was going in the army. I said to myself, gee that’s just so fitting. To me when a young kid tells me they’re going in the army and they’re working in some parking lot or something like that; I don’t know for certain, but I say this kid’s looking for direction. But in his eyes I got the sense that the direction had to come from within him.
Anyway the kid had a nice pink shirt and red hair and a red hat. There were aesthetic reasons as well (he laughs), the psychological and spiritual element have to be there, but as well a successful image for me has to be aesthetically balanced.”
-From an interview with Bruce Wrighton by Sean Phelan, August 2, 1988 for the Weekly Pennysaver
So I asked myself what is it that I like so much about these portraits? Why were they stuck in my head for the last months? Why did I seriously think about buying a print (soem portraits come in a new edition of 20 / appr. 12*18 inches with 2000 Dollar each – reasonable I think ) ?
I think Wrighton picked quite interesting characters for his pictures and composed them beautifully in their surroundings. The colors a really gorgeous and so natural, it just feels good to me to see the quality of these prints (made with a 8*10 large format camera) especially when you compare them to these bad, flat digital prints you see nowadays way too often. The guy in the second picture reminds me of a worker or miner in a Richard Avedon picture… In general I see a connection to the portrait work of Avedon, but also to August Sander e.g. Wrightons work is because of his early death not comprehensive enough to make him a real classic, but I’d say at the moment he his absolutely undervalued.
German publisher Hatje Cantz will, as far as I know, publish a book on Wrightons work later this year.
Here some more pictures from the interior and car series:
I finally found this one that was in an auction last year. Also a beautiful one.
What do you think about him? Post your opinion!
August 2, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Thanks for a beautiful appreciation of Bruce’s work. we are now working on a book (not with Cantz) and the noted author Vicki Goldberg will be writing the essay. The working title is “Bruce Wrighton: Divine Color”
Larry Miller
August 15, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Thanks so much for drawing my attention to this guy! I had never heard of him before, and I think he is absolutely wonderful, can’t really believe that he is so little known. Hopefully the book will materialize soon!
December 21, 2009 at 10:41 am
[...] to Bruce Wrighton one of the most interesting photographers I “discovered” this year was Mark Cohen (born [...]
March 17, 2011 at 11:48 pm
I knew Bruce pretty well, for a period of more than ten years. I met him when he came to work as a cook in my restaurant. He was a very good waiter, but he preferred working in the kitchen. I always thought he looked a little bit like Clint Eastwood, which would have made him laugh had I ever told him. Alas, he died unexpectedly. He suffered a very grave and unforgiving illness. Bruce was the kind of person who sacrificed EVERYTHING for his art, which was sometimes quite challenging when other aspects of his life needed or demanded more of his attention than he had available to give. He was truly generous in spirit and that generosity is reflected in his work.
January 27, 2012 at 5:40 pm
Nice soulful work. I had not heard of this man, so sad to see such a talent lost so early.
January 28, 2012 at 1:30 am
This is nice work, but it isn’t all that special. His subjects look as though they’re on their last nerve with how long it’s taking to set up the shot. Every photographer has a differnet approach. Getting a subject to disarm is key. He was obviously able to do that to the point that they agreed to be photographed. Getting them to stand there in front ancient equipment, which lends itself to a seriousness that another format just doesn’t. It certainly would have been interesting to see what he could have done had he lived longer. His passing was a real loss to contemporary photography.