TOPIC 1

Gilden’s aggressive, subjective, and hard-core style of photography would not exist without the collaboration with his subjects. However, unorthodox the approach with the distinctive directness of the work revolutionises the candid image ‘ The photographic style of Bruce Gilden is defined by the  dynamic accent of his pictures, his special graphic qualities, and his original and direct manner of shooting the faces of passers-by with a flash.’ (Gilden, undated). This no negotiable approach has little regard for the collaborators perhaps the disregard of willingness of the passer by changes the concept of traditional collaboration moving towards passing contributor, right place wrong time relationship between photographer and subject. Without these brief encounters Gilden’s work would diminish as they are reliant on the collaboration of subject to capture the hustle and bustle of the street.  
The very nature of collaboration is ‘the act of working with another person or group of people to create or produce something’ (Oxford, 2022),  as an audience Gilden and his interactions with unaware/unwilling collaborators enabling the voyeuristic view of peoples’ lives