What’s Up?
Nickerson Beach has been excellent; I have been loving the cloudy conditions but the sun is coming. I saw Billy Joel’s last and fiftieth performance at Madison Square Garden last. It was an amazing experience. At 75, his voice is still great and his strength and stamina amazing; he was on stage for 2 hours, forty five minutes non-stop. Needing a new fanny pack, I drove into the city to shop at B&H before the show so I did not get back to my AirBnB until well after 1:00am. With clear skies and a NW wind I slept in on Friday. I did find the perfect fanny pack and will share the details here soon.
Multiple IPT veteran Monte Brown who is sharing my AirBnB in Lido Beach for the (extended) first Nickerson Beach IPT, arrived at 11:00am.
Today is Saturday 27 July 2024. We will head to Nickerson early for a morning session. First timer Judy Stepenaskie will be joining us for 4 1/2 days this afternoon. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too have a great day.
Today’s post documents the amazing and eclectic life of my good friend, Dr. Greg Gulbransen. I urge you to read everything below and watch the two videos, especially the second one that details the work he did on his new book, Say Less. The Leica video below is a must watch. Say Less is a photo book. The images are beautiful, dramatic, and disturbing at once. In short, Greg is an amazing friend, doctor, person, and photographer. I look forward to seeing him at Nickerson again in early August.
Adjectives That Describe Dr. Greg Gulbransen
Skilled; passionate; caring; loving; appreciative; hard working; well adapted; talented; driven; artistic; adventurous; brave, courageous, fearless, diligent; happy; extroverted; pleasant; brilliant; honest; trustworthy; gracious; amiable; curious; dedicated; wise; considerate; soft-spoken; generous; successful; accomplished; connected; grounded; affectionate; adaptable; creative; ambitious; pleasant; intelligent; affectionate; persistent; dynamic; kind; patient; genuine; efficient; heartfelt; amazing; awesome; positive; extraordinary; calm; stellar; adept; joyful; sincere, fearless; capable; organized; honorable; knowledgeable; relaxed; warm-hearted; virtuous; humble; and devoted.
If you care to add any that I missed after watching the two videos, please do so by leaving a comment.
Dr. Greg Gulbransen
Greg started out shooting fashion but transitioned to documenting the lives of unique individuals with interesting stories. Greg loves meeting new people and tries to preserve their legacy with photography. Greg also enjoys the solace of cold weather wildlife. His images have been published in the New York Times, Daily Mail, ELLE, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Northwell Health, The Weather Channel, Spirit and Flesh, Grazia and Pandora to name a few. Some of Greg’s documentary work has been featured on the A & E Network’s History Channel.
You can check out his Photofolio site here.
I’ve known Greg seemingly forever. His life and his work have been documented here on the BAA Blog several times. His photography can only be described as eclectic. Early on, he began photographing birds and soon began to excel as a fashion and architectural photographer. More recently he has worked on self-assigned projects in West Virginia and in the South Bronx, NY, NY.
To get a better idea of who Greg is, check out his Instagram page here. Virtually every one of his posts will put a smile on your face.
The Tragedy
The story above has been shared here before. Greg took a huge tragedy and made sure that something good came of it. All while maintaining a healthy outlook and life, being happy, and accomplishing great things.
Say Less
Building Trust in Photography
Over the course of three years, in the South Bronx, Dr. Greg Gulbransen photographed Malik, a leader of the violent street gang, the Crips. Malik was shot and paralyzed in 2018 by the bullet from a rival gang, and as a result his world now centers around his small Bronx apartment in New York, where he is cared for by his family and fellow gang members.
Gulbransen, a practicing pediatrician, had been photographing in the Bronx during his spare time and had got to know some of the local kids. He began to notice a lot of young men in wheelchairs with spinal injuries and was professionally curious. He was told they had all been shot. He wanted to speak to someone in a wheelchair and was introduced to Malik through a fellow Crip.
‘As a physician, it was a way to explore one facet of the epidemic of gun violence in this country. There are shootings every day in the five boroughs of New York City and the Bronx is the worst. But across the country, gun violence and the availability of guns is a public health emergency. The effects are devastating. The physician in me wants to show people who don’t live in areas with high rates of gun violence how terrible it can be in these places, how complicated the problem is, how far-reaching the effects of the gun-violence epidemic are. The photographer in me is trying to show what it’s like to be a victim of gun violence while also being a part of the problem.’
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Image #1: Malik’s bedroom in the Mitchel Houses, Bronx, NY
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Shot and Paralyzed
One summer night in 2018, Malik left his apartment to pick up a sandwich for dinner. He was shot in front of a 99-cent store by a rival gang. The bullets severed Malik’s thoracic spine and instantly paralyzed him from his chest down. Malik was one of the key leaders of the local set, and so, even after the shooting, gang members continued to come to his apartment at all hours of the day and night, to talk, plan and to take care of their leader.
Malik lives with his mother and grandfather in a housing project. There are no nurses or aides to help with Malik’s care so during the day his mother, Eyanna, manages his many medical issues such as changing his diaper and catheter, and his father is on call at night. The photographs in the book show Malik’s day-to-day life, the cramped apartment, the difficulties of inhabiting and navigating the small space in a wheelchair, the visiting gang members, hushed conversations, the closeness and love of his family, and the proximity to violence and loss.
‘It’s a very emotional space. There’s tension there, darkness, fear. It’s a place of turmoil. Yet at the same time there was always so much love and caring. The apartment was filled with contradictions.’
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Image #1: Greg Gulbransen’s friend Malik
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Trapped
To this day, Malik can’t enter certain neighborhoods or travel down certain streets or there’s a good chance a rival gang member will try to finish him off. His world is his bedroom. He is trapped.
‘I’m trying to complicate things for readers (hopefully) by showing that passing judgment on people like Malik might not, morally speaking, be as easy as it might seem. There are a lot of victims here and, yes, some of them are perpetrators, too. I’m definitely not saying these guys are saints —- they’ve all made choices and they should absolutely be held accountable for those choices, but they’re victims, too.’
You can pre-order a copy of Say Less here.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
Reminds me some of W. Eugene Smith’s work
Thanks, Doc. I had never of the guy. So much for ignorance … I found a ton of great info on him here:
https://www.magnumphotos.com/photographer/w-eugene-smith/
Amazing many and career. And yes, a lot like Greg.
with love, artie
Artie
Wow Doc what an amazing story i can appreciate your journey in life as mine doesn’t even compare and so many transitions but isn’t life and photography hand in hand as one try’s to capture the moment in time but it is behind the scene before the photo after the photo and during the photo. To look at Malik’s journey one gives pause to reflect on his struggles and his strength to keep on keeping. I commend Malik on finding a way not to give up. I lived in the Chicago area back in the mid 70ies and i visited areas i had NO BUSINESS being in i saw people in the street back then fighting and even then you step wrong and you are 6 feet under. The Hells Angels Gang had a territory and now and then there rivals would do a drive by and literally paint the front of the house with bullets, amazing Doc i love your journey and while one cannot begin to think how some live because they have no clue you have captured it perfectly. Amazing work, back then in my younger days it was about mostly white people however i had a friend called Victor Davis and he was a black kid and me white and we became the best of friends but others are like Bob what the hell are you doing, i didn’t care what they thought he was a good man and great heart and 3 white guys didn’t like it one day i was his friend and they proceeded to pound me, down in Cicero, a suburb near Chicago and all the sudden there is Victor and he proceeded to take these guys on and give them a piece of his life. Those guys never bothered either one of us after that. Oh there were times when it got bad but i made it thru. I can only relate a tiny bit of Malik’s life and all i can say is keep on keeping Malik and don’t let the old man in…”Clint Eastwood”
Doc amazing journey in life and Artie thank you for bringing it to life!
Always with love b
Heart as camera. Words and deeds are deeply moving. ‘No mud. No lotus.’ – Thich Nhat Hanh
Thanks for those words, Marc. I hope to see you in early August.
with love, artie
Well told & such an important story to share.
Your comment is appreciated.
much love, artie