“Being a native New Yorker and having a gangster-type father—you know: big hats, thick grey hair, gold rings—that had a big effect on what I photographed,” says Bruce Gilden. And what he photographed at the start of his career is now on view, thanks to Gilden’s rediscovery, in 2017, of about 2,000 rolls of 35mm film. Spanning the years 1978 to 1984, here are the early flash-free, glamour-free street photographs that would became Gilden’s signature. —J.V.