The great American documentary photographer Bruce Davidson is in the UK this week to receive a major award, and has spoken of his hopes of trying to find out what happened to the subject of one of his favourite photographs.

Girl Holding Kitten, posed somewhere in London in 1960, was taken when he was travelling around Britain in a Hillman Minx convertible. "She was with two friends and they were on their way to a concert which, as I remember it, took place on an island," Davidson, 77, told the Guardian. "I hung around with them for a few hours. The girl with the kitten, the bedroll and the beautifully innocent, hopeful, mysterious face has stayed with me ever since."

Now, more than 50 years later, Davidson is back in Britain to receive the outstanding contribution to photography award at this year's Sony world photography awards. Two retrospective shows of his work open in London next week and will include his iconic images from the American civil rights struggle.

Davidson is known for his closeness to his subject matter. He befriended a group of teenagers for his seminal book, Brooklyn Gang (1959), and spent three years living among the residents of East 110th Street in the late 1960s.

"I don't do detachment," he says. "I often start off a project as an outsider and become an insider."

He says the girl with the kitten comes into his head each time he visits Britain. "If she is still alive, I'd love to know what she is doing now, what her story is," he says. "I never even wrote down her first name. I know it's 50 odd years ago, but someone out there must know who she is, surely."