USA. Brooklyn, NY. 1959. Brooklyn Gang. The Statue of Liberty from a rooftop on Seventeenth Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues.

USA. New York City. 1959. Brooklyn Gang. Lefty showing his tattoo.

USA. New York City. 1959. Brooklyn Gang.

USA. New York. New York City. 1959. Brooklyn Gang. ©BRUCE DAVIDSON/MAGNUM

USA. Coney Island, NY. 1959. Brooklyn Gang.

USA. Coney Island, NY. 1959. Brooklyn Gang.

USA. Coney Island, NY. 1959. Brooklyn Gang. Bengie and friends at Bay Twenty-two, Coney Island. Clockwise from left: Bengie, Junior, Bryan, Lefty.

USA. Coney Island, NY. 1959. Brooklyn Gang. Benji in bathhouse.

USA. Coney Island, NY. 1959. Brooklyn Gang. On the boardwalk at West Thirty-third Street, Coney Island. Left to right: Junior, Bengie, Lefty.

USA. Coney Island, NY. 1959. Brooklyn Gang. Outside Mike’s tattoo shop in Coney Island.

USA. New York City. 1959. Brooklyn Gang.

USA. Brooklyn, NY. 1959. Brooklyn Gang.

USA. New York City. 1959. Brooklyn Gang.

USA. New York City. 1959. Brooklyn Gang. Backseat of a car.

USA. New York City. 1959. Brooklyn Gang. On a bus.

USA. New York City. 1959. Brooklyn Gang. Teenager couple smoking at a kitchen table.

USA. New York City. 1959. Brooklyn Gang.

USA. Brooklyn, NY. 1957. Couple necking on pole at basement party while girl looks on, from Brooklyn Gang.

USA. New York City. 1959. Brooklyn Gang.

USA. Brooklyn, NY. 1959. Brooklyn Gang.

USA. New York City. 1959. Brooklyn Gang.

USA. Brooklyn, NY. 1959. Brooklyn Gang. On a Brooklyn subway.

In 1959, photographer Bruce Davidson read about the teenage gangs of New York City. Connecting with a social worker to make initial contact with a gang in Brooklyn called The Jokers, Davidson became a daily observer and photographer of this alienated youth culture. The Fifties are often considered passive and pale by our standards of urban reality, but Davidson’s photographs prove otherwise. These photographs of Brooklyn gangs, Davidson’s first photographic project, were undertaken when he was not much older than the boys depicted in the work.

Davidson, a Magnum photographer, has recently published a monograph entitled Brooklyn Gang, containing 70 images from this documentary series and some interviews as well.  These images had never been published together as a whole until the recent publication of this book.