A Salute to the Masters: Santa Barbara 2015 (A Tribute to Bruce Davidson)

This article is dedicated to Bruce Davidson, one of the most important American documentary photographers and a leading figure of the Magnum agency. Recalling his photos of the Worcester Fire Department in 1999, I’ll show you my coverage of Como Fire Department’s public demonstration, an annual event commemorating St. Barbara.

Bruce Davidson is one of the most versatile living photographers. He shoots, develops, and prints all of his pictures. He started photography when he was 10 years old. He studied at the Rochester Institute of Technology and Yale University, followed by military service. In 1957, he did freelance work, collaborating with Life and joining the Magnum Agency a year after. Like Leonard Freed, he covered the civil rights movement in America. This work led to a Guggenheim fellowship in 1962.

I consider his most famous book Subway kindred (albeit in color) to the masterpiece Many are Called, a book of portraits taken in the New York subway by Walker Evans with a hidden camera. Another of Davidson’s work that I love is Circus, a collection of images that underline the exhausting atmosphere behind the scenes, the sacrifice and the long work of the artists. He also shot unconventional photos of Central Park in New York and portraits East 100th Street people. For me, this book shows the humanity that is in all people.

In 1999, Davidson did a reportage on the Worcester Fire Department, which had lost a lot of firemen in action. Six years before, fourteen firemen died while putting out a huge fire on the mountains near Glenwood Springs. The same year he took photos, six were killed at the Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse fire. Something about his photos made me think of the dignity of surviving such a harrowing experience.

For this tribute, I documented an event organized by the Como Fire Department for their patron saint. They taught children how an extinguisher works and welcomed people to the local museum that houses firefighter helmets and a valuable fire engine that belonged to the 9 11 heroes of the New York Fire Department.

By nightfall, the demonstration began with an assembly and the firefighters’ ascent to a braced-ladder.

Using ladders with hooks, the firemen showed us how to climb a building wall to get to a window sill.

In the dark was the most spectacular demonstration: how to switch off a burning gas tank followed by a simulation of simulated fire rescue.

At the end of the show the firefighters climbed on the wall to form the symbol of a flame, their logo.

I leave you with two photos of the museum:

A Salute to the Masters is a series dedicated to great photographers that I like. I posted other tributes for Walker Evans, Lee Friedlander, Helen Levitt, Ernst Haas, Stephen Shore, Gabriele Basilico, Robert Adams, Thomas Struth, J.H. Lartigue, Elliott Erwitt, Robert Frank, Gianni Berengo Gardin, André Kertész, Willy Ronis, Brassaï, Rodchenko, Dan Graham, Henry Grant, William Eggleston, Dennis Stock, Juergen Teller, Martin Parr, Peter Mitchell, Mario Giacomelli, David Burnett, Michael Williamson, Bernard Cahier, Harry Gruyaert, Bruno Barbey, Paul Strand, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Lothar Rübelt, David Goldblatt, Henry Cartier-Bresson, Raymond Depardon, Aaron Siskind, Mario de Biasi, Sabine Weiss, Jack Delano, Bill Eppridge, Édouard Boubat, Serge Moulinier, George Krause, Robert Doisneau, Ferdinando Scianna, Robert Capa, Alexey Brodovitch, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Christopher Williams, Pepi Merisio, Josef Koudelka, Christopher Anderson, Renè Burri, Mary Ellen Mark, Marc Riboud, Cornell Capa, Roger Mayne, Monte Fresco, Ugo Mulas, Dennis Oulds, Leonard Freed and Izis Bidermanas. I especially love street photography and urban architectural photography.

written by sirio174 on 2016-02-06 #lifestyle #firefighters #santa-barbara #italy #fire-department #como #salute-to-the-masters