‘The Man on the Bridge’ Street Photographer Arthur Fields

Written By: Gail Clifford | Published By: Weekend Notes | July 28, 2022

https://www.weekendnotes.com/the-man-on-the-bridge-street-photographer-arthur-fields/

Whilst on the Original Dublin Walking Tour with guide Alan Swain, he mentioned some true Irish personalities. One was “The Man on the Bridge.”

But it was at the Dublin City & Archive where I was able to peruse the second book of photos compiled by Ciaran Deeney and David Clarke and find people that may even be related. Reading their stories, submitted by their families, made it that much more touching.

The Man on the Bridge would take passersby photographs, long before photography was common and long before cell phones made it so easy. If the people wanted the photograph, he’d accept payment and take their address. His wife developed the photographs each day and placed a postage mark on the back, a serial number that can now identify them.

Brilliant and prolific, it’s estimated, Alan tells me, that his collection exceeded 2 million photographs over that 50-year period. But I wanted to know more about the man.

Arthur Fields, the street photographer who became known as “The Man on the Bridge,” was born Abraham Feldman to Ukraine emigres of Jewish descent in 1901. The name was Anglicized to avoid anti-Semitism.

He had a natural talent for photography that he honed over his lifetime. Street photography was common at that time. I learned from the online program that he was accompanied by two or three other photographers regularly, seven over his time that didn’t experience careers as long as his. The camaraderie amongst them is palpable as you view the photo Arthur Fields takes of one of those colleagues accompanied by his wife.

They each had their own “patch,” or territory, along the “photographic mile” the stretch of Dublin from O’Connell Street, across O’Connell Bridge, down Westmoreland Street to Grafton Street.

Arthur Field’s patch was the O’Connell Bridge.

When once the only formal photographs were taken at weddings or induction into the military or formal family portraits, Arthur served a niche in street life that showed Dubliners in a more relaxed and realistic state.

In the program, Arthur’s son would describe how his dad would be away 12 hours a day, every day of the year. He’d take a bus in around 0930, spend the day on O’Connell’s Bridge taking photographs, then take the last bus home each day. On Christmas Day, when the busses weren’t running, he’d “trudge into town, even in his 80s. He didn’t want to miss the opportunity.” With those hours, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that his son didn’t feel as though he “knew” his dad. But one very nice thing did come out of this Man on the Bridge project: “It’s giving me a new perspective.” A nice perspective of your Da is a wonderful thing.

About 6 pm, Arthur would move to the Adelphi Theatre in Dublin 1 and wait for people coming out of the theatre or away from dances. Lots of photographs were taken by young men who wanted to impress their girls or intuitive men who wanted to document their lives stopped to be photographed as repeat customers.

Such was the case of Kevin Denny, whose son was interviewed for the program. The first photo of Mr. Denny was as a youth in the 1940s, working. Then we see photos of him courting and then marrying his wife, then bringing his boys one at a time into Dublin, then one of the family. The last photo of Mr. Denny was in the ’80s and is treasured by his son. He says it’s good to be able to show his father to his sons, who only knew their grandfather as an older man. Mr. Denny was wise to choose Mr. Fields as the de facto family photographer. While we may not be able to travel back in time, having the photos as memories that can take our minds back to a sometimes kinder and gentler time is lovely.