This is brief post about a photographer who’s book I bought many years from a charity shop,read,looked at once or twice then put away.I think you may be hearing more form me about him in the future,briefly David Bradford studied at Rhode Island School of design,graduating in 1978 after which he became an art director in New York but eventually decided it was not for him,he wanted to dedicate more of his working week to himself and his photography.He still had to pay the bills though !
To begin with he became a bicycle messenger to barely make ends meet and eventually decided to become a taxi driver.
Photographer,Taxi driver or both ?
I can highly recommend the book or perhaps check out his work on the website above.Fom the early 1990’s he took a camera with him everywhere he went,shooting over 50’000 images of New York life from the perspective of a Taxi Driver,nearly always from the window of the car. Amazing images that take us through a journey of time when New York was on the change.
Having spent a lot of time shooting in many many cities,I have often been driven from one location to the other,capturing images on the way,I see a parallel in this work and plan to explore it more.
Though my research on the A406 project I can see a commonality with many photographers who have photographed the road and it’s surroundings,from the early pioneers such as Walker Evans through Todd Hido (who shoots through the steamed/iced up windows of his car by carlight)have all used this method of shooting either alongside or as a core element of telling similar stories around the road and the automobile.
Todd Hino #9308 2010
DEAN BELCHER CRITICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL 