"Now is the Time" Davidson's Civil Rights Photos

Bruce Davidson's historic photos from the Civil Rights Movement in the 60's are on exhibit @ the Howard Greenberg Gallery on East 57th.  Davison was a successful high fashion photographer for Vogue before turning his camera towards the Civil Rights Movement & joining the Freedom Riders.   He grew-up in the mid-west in a predominately white community but as Davidson said "something reached inside me and I wanted to see how bad things were for people of color."  Having experienced the racial struggles and injustices in the South, early 60's (Montgomery, Birmingham, Selma) "I couldn't come to grips with what I was experiencing in the South," said Davidson.  These powerful and disturbing photographs show the Nat'l Guard boarding the Freedom Buses, a young black woman seated at a lunch counter next to a young white woman whose face expresses utter disdain, and a black women with 2 white officers grabbing her arms beneath a movie marque of "The Defiant Ones."  There are photos of Dr. King taken in Selma '65 & Birmingham '63.  The exhibit is on display through the end of summer.  I hope I will have the opportunity to view these historic photos when I return.  For those who are in NYC, now is the time to see them.