Jill Freedman: “The city falling apart"

"Rage," 1978. "The city falling apart," Ms. Freedman, 68, said of that era. "It was great. I used to love to throw the camera over my shoulder and hit the street."

‘Jill Freedman influenced by the Modernist documentarian Andre Kertesz with references to the hard-edged, black and white works of Weegee and Diane Arbus, captured raw and intimate images, and transformed urban scenes into theatrical dramas.’

Freedmans, ‘Love Kills’ is comparable to the work exhibited by Bruce Davidson who documented a diverse cross section of city residents riding the New York Subway across the metropolis during the 1980’s. Similarly Bruce Davidson and Jill Freedman targeted struggling individuals of the blemished fallen apple New York had become during the 1970’s and early 1980’s. However despite both photographers displaying work of almost identical subject matter the emotional response evoked within the audience in my opinion could not be more dissimilar.

Bruce Davidson, 1980

USA. New York City. 1980. Subway.

The contrasting monochrome tones featured in ‘Love Kills’ creates a dynamic image emphasising the narrative of the individuals themselves by simplifying there surroundings, where as Bruce Davidson used a significant expanse of darkness to emphasis the depth of the photograph highlighting individuals within the foreground. For Davidson the emerging expanse of darkness is a point of interest,

'as the train moves into the tunnel, fluorescing lights reach into the gloom and trapped inside we all hang on together.'

 Whether intentional the background is a physical representation of the society New York citizens were imprisoned within, a time defined by violence, poverty and disarray.