With his photo series about people who live on the verge of American society, Bruce Davidson became one of the iconic figures of street photography. A big retrospective show of his photographic oeuvre is now on display at Vienna's Westlicht Gallery. His series of drifting youngsters (Brooklyn Gang, 1959), the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the residents of the 'Spanish Harlem', living in poverty (East 100th Street, 1966-1968) bring us close to everyday America of the time. Close in the strict sense of the word, as Davidson builds up a close relationship with the subjects of his portraits. Sometimes he is following them with his camera for years. "I wanted to photograph a molecule of this very complex metropolis in which we live. To be there, not to rush along. I became part of the street life" - he said about the East 100th Street project, which he made for two years, with the National Endowment for the Arts.

Davidson is also considered, along with Edward Steichen and Henri Cartier-Bresson, as one of the major figures humanistic photography. His works are not mere documentations of a social shift, a milieu or a subculture. He takes one step closer, in order to get his protagonists really open up for his camera. „You have to have passion, you have to have purpose, and you have to be sensitive for where you are  in history“, he said Austrian public television ORF at the opening of the exhibition. "I have always believed in being close. It is important to be close. So that’s the way I work. That’s the way I am."