Brooklyn Gang: Summer 1959 - First edition, slipcase

Twin palms publishers
november 1998
10 x 11.5 inches
96 pages
67 sheet-fed gravure plates

In the spring of 1959, I met a group of teenagers in Brooklyn who called themselves "The Jokers." I was twenty-five and they were about sixteen. I could easily have been taken for one of them... In time they allowed me to witness their fear, depression, and anger. I soon realized that I, too, was feeling some of their pain. In staying close to them, I uncovered my own feelings of failure, frustration, and rage. –Bruce Davidson

During the summer of 1959, Bruce Davidson followed a loosely knit "gang" of teenagers around Brooklyn, New York. His camera captured these children of the James Dean generation in private and public moments, at the drugstore soda fountain, tattoo parlor, Coney Island, and late night basement dance parties. The beautiful adolescents who occupy the pages of this book exude a cool sensuality which came by way of the young Brando and Dean and traveled from America around the world. Davidson has created an exquisite photographic elegy for a time when, in retrospect, we all seemed young.

TWIN PALMS • VINTAGE
These vintage copies from the archive have been tucked away in storage since the book was first published in 1998. They are as new, in shrink-wrap. Please note that the price will increase as we sell through our limited inventory.