Untitled (51205)

1959

Brooklyn Gang: Untitled (51205), 1959. Bruce Davidson (American, b. 1933). Gelatin silver print; paper: 50.8 x 61 cm (20 x 24 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of an anonymous donor 2018.685 © Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos Shown here on the Coney Island boardwalk, from left to right, are gang members Junior Rice, Bob Powers, and Lefty, who “was a pretty tough guy in the gang and then he went to jail for about a year,” according to Powers. “He came out and he just lost it. He wasn’t the same guy. Something happened and nobody knew what. . . . We protected him a bit, but he caught a couple of bad beatings and lost his reputation. He ate a lot of pills one night and never woke up. His mother found him dead. OD’d in bed at 19. He was the first in the group to die from a drug overdose.” One of Davidson’s best-known series, Brooklyn Gang was inspired by a news story about a teenage gang named the Jokers.