Short interview with Bruce Gilden on PBS.org. An excerpt:
EGG: What advice can you offer other photographers?
BG: A lot of people who come to photography come to it with baggage, and they can’t get beyond their own baggage that they bring with them. For example, when I was in Haiti in 1984, I passed these funeral processions. I got out and I started to take pictures, but I was very cautious because I didn’t know how the people would respond. Then, after going to the cemetery over several weeks, I was able to even try my flash because I found that most people didn’t mind. And I think that’s a very good lesson. In your culture it may not be done. In another culture they may love it. The people in Haiti, they don’t get dress up all the time and they couldn’t afford to have a camera, so many of them asked me to photograph them at the cemetery or the burial. “We’d be more than honored,” they’d say. So that’s a very important lesson. You know, the world doesn’t just revolve around that one person. And it doesn’t revolve around me either. I’ve traveled the world. And that’s one thing I’ve realized. When I’ve spoken about photography, I always tell the people that the best advice I can give you is to be yourself and to photograph what you’re comfortable in doing. And I think that’s the best answer.
