New Interview
Bruce Gilden

Bruce Gilden: “Criticism always motivates me”

May 14, 2025

Mr. Gilden, it was recently commented that every time someone makes photos with a Leica and calls it “street photography,” they should have to pay you five dollars. What do you think of that?

(Laughs) Oh, I don't believe that at all! That’s in jest! But so many people simply go into the street with their camera, and they call themselves a street photographer. I take a little offense to that because they’re often not very good. For me, I’m 78 years old now, I’ve been in the street with my camera for almost 60 years — even longer without a camera, even as a child I was out there playing ball as a kid in Brooklyn and Queens. I think to be a street photographer, you have to be outside, you feel the dirt, you smell the street, it’s about more than just a style, it’s about how you work.

But you would agree that you’re a pioneer of this photography genre?

Well, I think I'm very good. I know I'm very good. I worked very hard in the beginning to define my own style; I looked at all different kinds of magazines, and I went to all different kinds of photography shows to see what I liked, what I didn't like. And that's how I learned how I wanted a photograph to look. I ended up taking a photo course at night while studying to be an actor during the day. Eventually I bought a Nikon, and that was it, I was hooked. I stopped acting and just took photographs, doing whatever jobs I had to in order to support myself.

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Last week’s Interview
Hugh Grant

Hugh Grant: “It has to give you a thrill”

May 7, 2025

Mr. Grant, what kind of characters have you most loved playing over the years?

Well, in the early part of my career, I did all kinds of things. But one strand was baddies or weirdos — and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I wish I had kept that going, at least simultaneously, when I went off down rom-com alley. Although I do think that image perished in about 2010.

What did you like about playing the baddies?

It’s more fun. Actors prefer being baddies! Audiences prefer the baddies, and it's a very interesting question of why that is so. My personal belief is that it's the antagonist, the bad guy, who represents our true selves. And that is thrilling. I think it's thrilling to experience our true selves through that character. I think we are vicious, violent, selfish, unpleasant. And that's why good characters are quite difficult, because the good characters are the superficial, civilized veneer that we put on our true brutish self. It's less interesting. People are fascinated with bad guys in the way that they're fascinated with horror. They're fascinated with a spider in a tank or a snake in the zoo. You can't take your eyes off them, whereas the rom-com ones are much harder as an actor because you're always in grave danger of being a bit boring.