BRUCE WRIGHTON: STREET PORTRAITS
Bruce Wrighton’s artistic career consists of three projects made in the mid-1980’s with an 8 x 10” camera in the vicinity of his home in Binghamton, New York: Street Portraits, Dinosaurs and Dreamboats, and St. George and the Dragon. Bruce Wrighton lived and worked in Binghamton, New York until his death in 1988 at the age of 38.
Street portraits is a powerful yet tender series that places Wrighton in the tradition of Eugene Atget, Lewis Hine, and August Sander. It focuses on individuals and couples who were very much part of the working class, many of whom lived outside the mainstream of society. Carnival workers, a parking lot attendant, a security guard, were among the over 75 people that willingly agreed to pose as he composed their portraits with his cumbersome 8 x 10” camera. Each of them gave something of him or herself to Wrighton, who recorded their often bruised faces and tattered clothing with affection and respect.
Laurence Miller Gallery here