The Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets
Bruce Gilden
Setanta Books
English
Hardcover
Edition of 750
Comes in gold dust jacket
108 pages
300 × 230 mm
2025
ISBN 9781915652263
Bruce Gilden’s new book is a raw, unflinching portrait of England seen through the eyes of one of street photography’s most daring practitioners. From Liverpool’s football terraces to the troubled corners of King’s Cross, from surreal nights in Newcastle to bruising encounters in Welsh mining towns, Gilden captures the tension, humour, and unease of everyday life with his signature intensity.
Inspired initially by Tony Ray-Jones’ A Day Off, Gilden set out to explore England not through its postcard views, but through its grit, its danger, and its people on the edge. His stories are as vivid as his pictures; being forced out of Anfield by police on his birthday, dodging pickpockets, navigating drug-fueled confrontations, stumbling upon a faded boxing legend, and witnessing chaos in working men’s clubs.
This is not a romantic England. It’s a place where photographing often wasn’t safe, where street smarts were as essential as the camera itself. Gilden’s lens turns voyeurism into confrontation, exposing the surreal theatre of public life, moments both violent and tender, absurd and unsettling. The result is a book that sits between documentary and personal diary: a jagged, unforgettable journey into England’s shadows, where danger and humanity collide in every frame.
(Source: https://www.brucegilden.com/book-the-empire-on-which-the-sun-never-sets)
About the Artist
An Iconic street photographer with a unique style, Bruce Gilden was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1946. He first went to Penn State University but he found his sociology courses too boring for his temperament and he quit college. Gilden briefly toyed with the idea of being an actor but in 1967, he decided to buy a camera and to become a photographer. Although he did attend some evening classes at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Bruce Gilden is to be considered substantially a self-taught photographer.
The photographic style of Bruce Gilden is defined by the dynamic accent of his pictures, his special graphic qualities, and his original and direct manner of shooting the faces of passers-by with a flash. Gilden’s powerful images in black and white and now in color have brought the Magnum photographer worldwide fame.
https://www.brucegilden.com/
(Source: https://www.brucegilden.com/about)
About the Publisher
Setanta Books is a UK-based photography publisher located in Richmond, Surrey, specializing in rare and contemporary photography books. The collection includes signed editions, limited prints, and carefully curated titles from both emerging and established photographers worldwide.
(Source: https://www.setantabooks.com/)
