Bruce Davidson

I wanted to embrace everything that's quotidian in our lives. I wanted to ennoble it by staring at it, and to feel a hope for it that would never be let down because I had already felt it and things would continue to exist.

I wanted to make images and frame things like that peeling white paint of the bathroom, that door with its whitened hinges and hooks, and the faded, colored towel that hangs by it.

I wanted to say: these were our forks, this was our pile of books. And to feel a gladness that we have anything and it's easy and we are ordinary people but brave and have a good life.

I wanted to get that curious buoyancy of giving your heart out, the feeling of wanting to see something succeed. For example, like a bird picking up to fly, a leaf that floats all the way to the ground, or a man getting on a unicycle, or when all the green lights go red at once. Or when a baby falls down and you know it will live and be fine.