David Bradford moved to New York City in 1978. Hot out of the Rhode Island School of Design’s illustration program, he became an art director for Saks Fifth Avenue. After ten years at Saks, Bradford left to freelance as an illustrator and a designer. Then, in the 1990s, he took up cab driving so that he could pay his New York rent while making his own art. As a taxi driver, Bradford sees the city from a unique yet familiar perspective. Whether taking pictures or videos through his windshield, mirrors, or even his glasses, Bradford captures the mingled intimacy and strangeness that defines sharing a city with more than eight million people. Many of his photographs and short films feature what you would expect a cabbie to see: street lights, rainy windshields, and people with their hands in the air as they try to hail a taxi. But, his subjects–changing quickly as the city itself–range from pigeons in flight to ballerinas crossing the street, from brownstones in the snow to empty bridges in the early a.m. Bradford’s favorite views of the city can be seen in this interview with NewYork.com for their “New York Moments” series. His photography is collected in his two books, Drive-By Shootings (2000) and The New York Taxi Back Seat Book (2006), and installments of his current project–15-second movies from behind the wheel–are published unedited on his website.
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