Interpretation – “Order”

Bruce Davidson USA. New York City. 2004. Katz’s Delicatessen.

This photograph was taken by Bruce Davidson in 2004 as part of an assignment from Esquire magazine on photography in America. It exudes a somewhat sterile feel, most likely coming from it’s digital medium and snapshot-esque use of flash. Davidson’s use of a wide angle lens turns the table in front of the subject into an expansive plane of “plenty”, loaded with food. The child, which seems to be one of the main focus points of this photo, is seemingly flung haphazardly to the side of the woman in the photo. The woman here is the secondary point of focus. The point at which Davidson captured her action is very much like the work of Cartier-Bresson and his decisive moment. This “decisive moment”, however is one of consumption. With her responsibilties flung to the way side, seated in front of a modern day feast, she can drown all of her concerns in consumption. Upon more reading, this is somewhat what Davidson was trying to say. He was commenting on America.

“One of my assignments was for an issue on photography in America for Esquire. It was after 9/11. I couldn’t come to grips with all that. I didn’t think I could go out to the Grand Canyon and photograph a sunset and all of that. So, I photographed Katz’s [delicatessen] and I wrote a paragraph about peace and pastrami—how when you eat pastrami everyone feels peaceful.” (http://archives.jrn.columbia.edu/nyrm/2006/Well/behindtheimage.htm)

Day One

After having such a long stint working solely with video, I’m quite ready to continue pursuing photography. The chance to be so involved in so much art is incredibly exciting.