Composed entirely of previously unpublished photographs, The Way Back offers an in-depth look at Bruce Davidson's 60-year career. The book presents photographs made between 1957 and 1992 in chronological order, revealing Davidson's exceptional versatility, from early assignments to later seminal works. These include his year-long study of teenage members of a Brooklyn gang (1959), his extensive coverage of the US Civil Rights Movement in Time of Change (1961–1965), and his groundbreaking portraits of residents of a single Harlem block in East 100th Street (1966–1968). Series such as Subway (1980) and Central Park (1992) further establish Davidson as a quintessential chronicler of New York City. Whatever his subject, this retrospective reveals his evident sensitivity and empathy, his commitment to documenting people in depth over time, and his ability to capture their beliefs, communities and subcultures. While his contemporaries photographed events that made history, Davidson focused on the people within those stories. Now approaching the end of his long career, he offers this book as a farewell look at his artistic journey, an elegiac goodbye and a requiem: evidence of how his vision, developed over decades, has shaped our understanding of the world.