About this project
Since the housing market crashed in 2008, millions of Americans caught up in the subprime mortgage crisis have lost their homes. This is not a secret in the communities that live with foreclosures. The devastation is shielded from the eyes of other sectors of society, however, including many of those that caused it.
For over two years, I have been documenting foreclosures in some of America's hardest hit communities: Fort Myers, FL; Detroit, MI; and most recently, with support from the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund, Fresno, CA. In addition to photographing, I interview Americans who have been evicted from their homes, or who are facing eviction, and who have been launched into a devastating cycle of suffering: family life becomes unstable; children are at risk; violence increases; and communities disintegrate.
Going to Nevada next is key to my project. The place was a mortgage casino, with developments popping up like mirages. Now they have the highest unemployment rate in the country and are caught in an impossible foreclosure spiral. I want to spend three weeks there, photographing and interviewing people touched by foreclosures, similar to what I’ve done in Florida, Michigan, and California. I am absolutely dedicated to tracking this story across the country and making sure people can’t escape what foreclosures actually look like. We can’t let this be swept under the rug or reduced to statistics. Only by showing the human cost is there any hope for systemic change.
You can see my earlier work on foreclosures here and on the Emergency Fund website. I will make this work available to advocacy groups working on the housing crisis.
The funds I’m asking for will cover my travel costs in Nevada for about three weeks, film, and a sound tech for interviews. Every extra dollar will go to extending the project to additional neighborhoods and communities. I’ll keep working on this story as long as I can stay on the road.
The stories of the lives of Americans caught in the great recession need to be told—and I need your support to tell them.
-Bruce Gilden
The Magnum Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization, and supporters who elect not to receive a gift may take a tax deduction to the extent permitted by law.
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on March 11, 2011.
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A signed thank you on a postcard from the Foreclosures series, sent from Nevada, and recognition in the Nevada multimedia piece.
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A signed 8" x 10" HP print of a house from the project (a different image for each supporter), and recognition in the Nevada multimedia piece.
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A signed copy of my book "Facing New York", and recognition in the Nevada multimedia piece.
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A signed 8" x 10" gelatin silver print from the Foreclosures series (your choice), and recognition in the Nevada multimedia piece.
Pledge $1,000 or more Pledge $1,000 or more
A signed 11" x 14" gelatin silver print from the Foreclosures series (your choice), and recognition in the Nevada multimedia piece.
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Bruce Gilden's childhood in Brooklyn endowed him with a keen eye for observing urban behaviors and customs. He studied sociology, but his interest in photography grew when he saw Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blow-Up, after which he began taking night classes in photography at the New York School of Visual Arts.
Gilden's curiosity about strong characters and individual peculiarities has been present from the beginning of his career. His first major project, which he worked on until 1986, focused on Coney Island, and on the intimacy of the sensual, fat or skinny bodies sprawled across the legendary New York beach. During these early years Gilden also photographed in New Orleans during its famous Mardi Gras festival. Then, in 1984, he began to work in Haiti, following his fascination with voodoo places, rites and beliefs there; his book Haiti was published in 1996.
In June 1998 Gilden joined Magnum. He returned to his roots and tackled a new approach to urban spaces, specifically the streets of New York City, where he had been working since 1981. His work culminated in the publication of Facing New York (1992), and later A Beautiful Catastrophe (2005); getting ever closer to his subject, he established an expressive and theatrical style that presented the world as a vast comedy of manners.
His project After the Off, with text by the Irish writer Dermot Healey, explored rural Ireland and its craze for horseracing. Gilden's next book, Go, was a penetrating look at Japan's dark side. Images of the homeless and of Japan's mafia gangs easily bypassed the conventional visual clichés of Japanese culture.
Gilden, who has travelled and exhibited widely around the world, has received numerous awards, including the European Award for Photography, three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and a Japan Foundation fellowship. He lives in New York City.
