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A night out with Bruce Gilden

"A night out with Bruce Gilden" - promising titel isn't it? Alright, before I start my story for all those who don't know Bruce Gilden yous should take a look at his portfolios on the Magnum Photos website to see the kind of photography he does. I'd especially recommend looking at "A Beautiful Catastrophe" or his Book "Go" because that's pretty much how he works today. Oh and don't miss looking at this wonderful multimedia essay Magnum In Motion did a couple of months ago. I wrote about that in an earlier post.

I met Bruce Gilden for the first time perhaps a couple of days after starting to work at Magnum in New York. I would say that he is the one photographer who can be seen the most within the office on 23rd street. I don't want to make this too much of a praise of one certain photographer... But I guess I will. :-)
When I first met with Bruce I found him let's say very proper. He is a pretty smart guy although he might not always want to admit that. He is always direct and honest, talks and dresses the way he wants to and doesn't really care about what others might think of him. Some people might find his directness rude, I find it honest. You better make sure he likes you. ;-)
Over the time I respected him more and more, he is not only a great photographer (and I do think that Bruce Gilden will - at one point sooner or later - be recognized even more than he is today) but also a great entertainer.

When he stops by the office he mainly talks about soccer. Bruces daughter Nina who is 13 plays soccer in a pretty professional youth league. Don't ask me for the name of it. I can't remember. He tells us about game from last weekend, about the players, who did a good job and who failed. Sometimes his stories are pretty amusing. And recently one of the main topics between Bruce and me became his 8 months old cat. Somewhen I mentioned that I have two cats at home and now we are exchanging our cat experiences.

So why did I call this post "A night out with Bruce Gilden"? Simple answer: I was assisting Bruce last night at a fashion party in Downtown Manhattan. Last week I went for a couple of drinks with my colleague Nick and he told me that he might assist Bruce at a fashion party Saturday night. He has assisted him four or five times before that already and he must have noticed that I was melting away while thinking of assisting Bruce. He offered me to do this assisting job myself since he did it before and wants to spend Saturday evening with his girlfriend anyway.
So when Bruce came into the office the next day Nick came over to him while he was standing at my desk and asked him if it would be alright if I come to help him out. Bruce looked at me and said "Do you know how to use a light meter?". And before I could even answer he said "Hey Martin, don't get nervous now. You are turning red..."
This guy really looks through everybody. Well of course I know how to use a light meter. In theory. I've got one. But I rarely use it. Bruce might have a special light meter and I might mess things up... So I got nervous right away. :-)

Anyway, long story short, I met Bruce Saturday evening at his home, got to meet his wife and daughter, got updated on new school plans for Nina he showed me how to use his light meter and off we went to the "Fendi 80th Anniversary Party Hosted By Karl Lagerfeld".

We took the (in that case) stinking train a couple of stops downtown and got off at the Bowling Green station. After a short debate with the securtiy who didn't want to let us in because our name was not on the list we finally arrived. A bunch of photographers where lined up in front of a wall paved with Fendi logos. They where obviously waiting for the stars to arrive...

A couple of days ago my girlfriend asked me if I have ever seen celebrities on the streets of New York. I had to tell her that I didn't. At least not that I knew of. Now I can tell her that I did. Not on the streets but inside these huge, huge luxurious premises on Broadway. The first thing I had to think of when I saw this place - the way it was set up and decorated - was a huge, wild, drug consuming, very VIP sort of orgy. And by that time the place was still empty.
There have been many famous fashion designers, models and actors like Ashley Olsen, Tommy Hilfiger and Karl Lagerfeld. But let me tell you that I am not very good with famous people. The only face I recognized was Karl Lagerfeld. Famous or not, everybody tried hard to look important. So let's just leave them the fun.

I am sure you want to know if I was able to use the light meter or if I failed! I didn't use it at all. All I did was carrying Bruces backpack with replacements, a flashlight to look after the power of his flash once in a while and I had to make sure that I wasn't in one of the photographs he took. That must have been an interesting view for the visitors there. There are these two guys walking around, one of them (me) suddenly ducks down, jumps to the side or hides behind the other guy (Bruce) while he get's into peoples faces with his small Leica, a 24mm lens and a flash.
We had fun, made fun and had some nice conversations. What a night full of stars and glamor.

Posted by Martin Fuchs on October 30, 2005 11:55 PM