Bruce Wrighton

Born July 6, 1950, Ithaca, New York – Died October 3, 1988, Binghamton, New York

Education University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 1972, Bachelor of Arts Degree in History 1977 – 78, Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY

Experience 1973 – 1988, Commercial and advertising photographer while pursuing independent personal documentary projects.

This book shows – aside from very few images already published in our large scale book “At home“ (see there) from 2011 many more exceptional images e.g. of American luxury cars of the 1960s/70s.

The great documentary photographers were essentially invisible. Your gaze went directly to the subject before the camera, and only later you would think about points of view, lighting, and other considerations that might have gone into the making of the picture. From the 20th century we think of Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, Eugene Atget, Berenice Abbott, August Sander, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Roman Vishniac.

Like many of his predecessors, Bruce Wrighton carried a large format tripod-bound view camera. He regularly ventured into downtown Binghamton, NY, his home city in the 1980’s, where he created a perfect, transparent window revealing immense amounts of detail that even the best human eye could never detect. A torn thread on a sweater, a worn out chair in a bar, the songs on a glowing jukebox, the turn of a head and the twist of a jaw. And he did it not like the masters listed above, he did it in color, making his own prints as well.

Bruce Wrighton has left us a great legacy of humanistic, clearly seen and vividly colorful prints that capture the soul of a city well beyond its best years. He opened a window with which we could climb through with little effort, but with great reward. His considerable achievement is gradually being recognized and celebrated. Though his time was short, succumbing to cancer in his 38th year, he left us with timeless images.