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garry winogrand

garry winogrand Gary Winogrand’s photography career began when a friend introduced him to it in 1948 while taking painting classes at Columbia University. After Winogrand’s first exposure to the darkroom, he abandoned painting and “never looked back.” Winogrand became extremely emerged in photography and felt that nothing else in life mattered. He dropped out of college to pursue his passion. Earning an average of ninety cents per week, he had a difficult yet determined beginning. Winogrand did not concern himself with issues that were affecting society and therefore did not always appeal to the mass public. Winogrand’s long and successfully debatable career experienced many turns and obstacle that ultimately led him to become one of the most noted photographers of the late twentieth century. Winogrand discovered photography at a point in time when unconventional photos were just beginning to emerge. Although it was thought that photojournalism had offered the most opportunity, this new and unconventional direction of photography was preferred. Artists were now able to shoot what they desired not what they were told to shoot. This revolutionary form of photography was based on emotion and intuition as opposed to precision and description. Exploring real life became more of the focus, instead of calculated or planned out pictures. In the early fifties, Winogrand attempted to become a freelance photographer, but the money he was making was not sufficient enough to support his new wife and children. He was forced to spend most of his time working for magazines such as Colliers, Redbook, and Sports Illustrated. At this time Winogrand’s photo’s had no distinction from any other photojournalist, but he always felt different and waited for the chance to prove it. He once said, “ The best stories were those that had no story line…on entertainers…or athletic contests, where the photographer could forget narrative and concentrate on movement, flesh, gesture, display, and human faces”(Szarkowski, p17). By the early sixties, Winogrand’s marriage was beginning to fail. He became frustrated with his wife Adrienne because she would not disregard her interest in becoming a dancer and go to work to support his desire to become a photographer. It was during time that Gary became extremely preoccupied with photographing women on the streets of New York City. This may have been an attempt to cure his loneliness or possibly fill a void in his life. During the sixties, more and more women were finding their way into the work place. The women’s rights movement was taking shape and it became more common and acceptable for women to go to work. The photo’s that Winogrand captured of these women were made into a collection entitled Women are Beautiful. The collection greatly excited Gary, but disappointed him when the published collection failed to sell. Women were offended and felt that the collection set back the women’s movement. Men were merely mystified and confused, but not intrigued enough to buy Winogrand’s book. Critics and photographers found his collection to be lacking in both quality and subject. He agreed that Women are Beautiful was his weakest collection, but felt that the most interesting photographs were those that were the most controversial. In 1969, Winogrand published another book consisting of forty six of his best pictures from the zoo. During his separation period from his wife, Winogrand would take his children to the Bronx and Central Park Zoo. At the zoo, Gary realized he wanted to capture this American pasttime. Unlike most photographs taken in zoo’s, Winogrand concentrated on both the animals and the people. He wanted to capture the parable he saw of the animals within the zoo imitating the humans. Winogrand tried to capture this in his book The Animals but, again, his book did not succeed commercially. By combining both animals and people, he failed to reach the animal lovers, and those interested in people. Although The Animals did not sell it was noted as Winogrand’s most successful collection of work. By the early sixties, Winogrand discovered a innovative strategy for shooting with a wide angled lens. He developed a pictorial concept of using a wide angled lens as a hand camera, and put this idea to use on the streets of New York City. Primarily used for subjects at a vantagepoint, Gary began using the wide angled lens from a close viewpoint. The results captured the pedestrian’s entire figure from a perspective that the camera would normally be able to focus only on the face. He obtained a new and compelling image that contained not only the whole subject, but also a new angle. He shot the subject from above with the shoes included, and the face appearing to be shot from either straight ahead or below. Winogrand achieved this by tilting the camera at a forty-five degree angle, and focusing it on his subject’s navel. This nova caused all images of architecture and structure to become warped and exaggerated. Using a wide angled-lens allowed Winogrand to intensify the meaning and significance of his photographs. Winogrand had his first museum showing at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, in 1963. He, along with five other photographers, exhibited forty-five pictures in a show called Five Unrelated Photographers. Only a few years later, Winogrand decided to devote himself to teaching photography in a full time position at Chicago’s Institute of Design. At this time, he received a fellowship from the Guggenheim Museum to compose a cultural and political exhibit entitled The Effect of Media on Events. He proved that “life is more interesting than the theories that purport to explain it” (33). Winogrand remained teaching until retiring to Los Angeles. Before his death in 1984, he shot over 2,500 rolls of film that were never developed. Although Gary only published two out of four successful books, he composed a body of work that captured the mood of the times, and allowed us see life though his unique eyes. Through his accomplishment and failures, Winogrand’s world of energy, challenge, loneliness, humor, and unfamiliar beauty became apparent. One of Winogrand’s photographs that portrays many puzzling questions is his 1964, World’s Fair. This image consists of eight people, six women and two men sitting on a bench during the fair. The picture contains extremely compelling lines, facial expressions, gestures, and cultural and social statements. The person’s gestures greatly contribute to the flow of the existing lines. Visually tracing the picture, one may begin at the elbow of a woman who has it positioned toward the camera, and rests her hand beneath her head. This elbow brings the eye sharply down toward the street curb. The curb is photographed at an angle that appears to be ascending to the left. Following this curb up to the end, the eye is brought to a solid looking African American man. Following down the bench, is a row of fashionably dressed women who seem to be very flagged. At the end of the bench sits a conservatively dress man reading his newspaper. World’s Fair consists of many horizontal lines including the curb, the seat of the bench, the back of the bench, the small plants along the grass, and a long pathway in the distance. Each of these horizontal lines is balanced out by the strong presence of the vertical figures along the bench. Winogrand’s photograph displays an accurate portrayal of the culture of the 60’s. It is quite obvious what style of clothing was popular among the women, while the men’s ensembles could have been from any decade. From all of the women, it is apparent that short sleeveless dresses were among the latest in trends. It can also be determined which kind of shoes, handbags, sunglasses, and hairstyles were most popular. The actions, gestures, and thoughts of these people both say and imply many things. The black man and white woman on the left seem to be engaged in a conversation. The white woman sitting next to her might be whispering about the fact that the other woman is talking to a black man, which could further imply that this action of conversing outside of one’s race was not commonly accepted. The older man on the right may not be interested in futuristic ideas, preferring more conservative items such as a newspaper. Although each figure is involved in something different, their actions seem to have a connection to one another. Winogrand shot a wide view of this scene, but still managed to capture an intimate portrayal of each person. There are numerous possible stories and questions about each person sitting on the bench. Winogrand makes the viewers ponder over each expression and interaction, having them wishing they were sitting on the bench, eavesdropping on the subjects. Bibliography: Bibliography Szarkowski, John. Winogrand: Figments From The Real World. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1988.

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