Isaac Bashevis Singer and the Lower East Side

by Bruce Davidson and Isaac Bashevis Singer

Isaac Bashevis Singer, the Polish-born Yiddish writer and Nobel laureate, and New York documentary photographer Bruce Davidson collaborated on a surreal feature film made in 1973, entitled Isaac Bashevis Singer's Nightmare and Mrs. Pupko's Beard. This film was at once a documentary about Singer's New York and a dramatization of one his short stories. The film grew out of their friendship, as residents of the same building on the upper West...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0299206246
• ISBN13: 9780299206246
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Seeing the people of the lower East Side face-to-face

Davidson is one of the most well- known photographers working today. He made his reputation in good part during the Civil Rights Movement as one of its principal photographers. He also is well- known for his photographs of the life and characters of New York City. In this album he presents photos he made of the great Nobel Prize Winning author I.B. Singer. He also photographs other lower East Side characters with many pictures taken in the Garden City Cafe. Davidson has a unique style in which he photographs face to face. He seems to want to bring out the character of the person. He catches people in moments of melancholy and also surprise. What he gives us here is a documentary record of a certain period and place in American- Jewish life, the lower East Side world most of whose Yiddish Old World characters are now gone. His special affection for and relation with his old neighbor and friend Singer give an even more special quality to the work.

Some fine photos, and personal reminiscences

Davidson is a renowned photographer who had a solo show of his work at the MOMA in 1963. In 1972, he worked with IB Singer, and was introduced by him to the Garden Cafeteria of the Lower East Side. The reminiscences of Davidson are touching, and some of his photographs of Singer are quite piercing. The most memorable, in my estimation, is the one of Singer laughing, with his gappy Polish teeth showing through his wide mouthed smile. Although other photos of the Lower East side are included, I don't think many people would associate IB Singer with this neighborhood, since he frequently stated that he often delivered his work to the Forward late at night, and certainly he didn't hang out with other writers there.

noted Yiddish writer and NYC street life

Davidson has collected varied photographs taken in the course of his relationship with the noted author Singer based on their mutual fascination with New York City street life. Some of the photos are stills from their surrealistic film on one of Singer's short stories. Others are from the portfolio "The Garden Cafeteria," a rough-hewn eatery in Manhattan's Lower East Side popular with local Jews. Most of the characters and scenes in the photos could be from Singer's short stories noted for their comical, often somewhat grotesque or fantastical, depictions of Old World Jewry in the modern day. For Singer enthusiasts especially, there are several photos of him, and also a short story titled "The Beard." The story is somewhat about Singer himself, beginning, "That a Yiddish writer should become rich, and in his old age to boot, seemed unbelievable."