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| Garry Winogrand in 1964 |
If you are someone who loves street photography, you have got to check out Garry Winogrand's work! More specifically, you should take a peak of his book titled Winogrand 1964. Winogrand took a cross-country trip across the United States and took pictures of what he perceived to be the "American" lifestyle of the time.
Does this theme or genre sound familiar? A few weeks ago, I wrote about a photographer who took a similar trip in 1955-6: Robert Frank. Frank took photographs all over the United States and in 1958, published a photo book titled The Americans. In fact, if we travel back another twenty years from '58, a photojournalist by the name of Walker Evans also created a similar series titled American Photographs. Before Winogrand embarked on his own trip across the States, he knew he had big shoes to fill. Upon being interviewed by a student, Winogrand stated the following in regards to Frank's The Americans:
"I forgot what year when Robert Frank's book came out. He was working pretty much around that time, '55 or whatever it was. And there were photographs in there, particularly that gas station photograph, that I learned immense amount from..."
In the early 1960s, Winogrand applied for (and received) a grant to finance this trip through the Guggenheim. When Winogrand applied for his grant, the United States was at the height of political angst: the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy's Assassination - just to name a few...
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Winogrand, Garry, New York, 1964.
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| Winogrand, Garry, Huntsville, 1964. |
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| Winogrand, Garry, 1964. |
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| Winogrand, Garry, Los Angeles, 1964. |
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| Winogrand, Garry, American Legion Convention, Dallas, Texas, 1964. |
| I find that the most interesting thing about Winogrand - aside from his subjects - was his work process.
Winogrand's first wife, Adrienne Lubeau, noted that being married to
him was like being married to a camera lens. Friends described
Winogrand as being an obsessive picture taker. In an article published within the Washington Post: |
"Winogrand almost never developed his film immediately. He said he deliberately waited a year or two in order to lose the memory of the take. 'If I was in a good mood when I was shooting one day, then developed the film right away,' he told a class, 'I might choose a picture because I remember how good I felt when I took it'. Better, he maintained to let the film 'age', the better to grade slides or contact sheets objectively" (Van Riper; "Garry Winogrand: Huge Influence, Early Exit").
When Winogrand passed away in 1984 from gall bladder cancer, he had left behind 2,500 undeveloped 35mm rolls. Each of these rolls had 36 exposures on them; roughly 300,000 photos.
01.Van Ripper, Frank. "Garry Winogrand: Huge Influence, Early Exit." Washingtonpost.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 July 2013.
02. Chiarenza, Carl. "GARRY WINOGRAND: “Standing on the Corner – Reflections
Upon Garry Winogrand’s Photographic Gaze – Mirror of Self or World? Pt.
I” (1991)." Americansuburbx.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 July 2013.
03. "Garry Winogrand." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 July 2013. Web. 25 July 2013.