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Garry Winogrand
Widely regarded as one of the most important photographers of the 20th century, Garry Winogrand (1928–1984) did much of his best-known work in Manhattan during the 1960s, becoming an epic chronicler of that tumultuous decade. But Winogrand was also an avid traveler and roamed extensively around the United States, bringing exquisite work out of nearly every region of the country.
This landmark retrospective catalogue looks at the full sweep of Winogrand’s exceptional career. Drawing from his enormous output, which at the time of his death included thousands of rolls of undeveloped film and unpublished contact sheets, the book will serve as the most substantial compendium of Winogrand’s work to date. Lavishly illustrated with both iconic images and photographs that have never been seen before now, and featuring essays by leading scholars of American photography, Garry Winogrand presents a vivid portrait of an artist who unflinchingly captured America’s swings between optimism and upheaval in the postwar era.
This landmark retrospective catalogue looks at the full sweep of Winogrand’s exceptional career. Drawing from his enormous output, which at the time of his death included thousands of rolls of undeveloped film and unpublished contact sheets, the book will serve as the most substantial compendium of Winogrand’s work to date. Lavishly illustrated with both iconic images and photographs that have never been seen before now, and featuring essays by leading scholars of American photography, Garry Winogrand presents a vivid portrait of an artist who unflinchingly captured America’s swings between optimism and upheaval in the postwar era.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published April 28, 2013
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169 people want to read
About the author
Garry Winogrand
32 books13 followersGarry Winogrand (1928-1984) was a street photographer known for his portrayal of America in the mid-20th century. John Szarkowski called him "the central photographer of his generation".
Winogrand was influenced by Walker Evans and Robert Frank and their respective publications American Photographs and The Americans. Henri Cartier-Bresson was another influence although stylistically different. Winogrand was known for his portrayal of American life in the early 1960s. Many of his photographs depict the social issues of his time and in the role of media in shaping attitudes. He roamed the streets of New York with his 35mm Leica camera rapidly taking photographs using a prefocused wide angle lens. His pictures frequently appeared as if they were driven by the energy of the events he was witnessing.
Winogrand's photographs of the Bronx Zoo and the Coney Island Aquarium made up his first book The Animals (1969), a collection of pictures that observes the connections between humans and animals. His book Public Relations (1977) shows press conferences with deer-in-the-headlight writers and politicians, protesters beaten by cops, and museum parties frequented by the self-satisfied cultural glitterati. These photographs capture the evolution of a uniquely 20th and 21st century phenomenon, the event created to be documented. In Stock Photographs (1980), Winogrand published his views of the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show and Rodeo.
At the time of his death there was discovered about 2,500 rolls of undeveloped film, 6,500 rolls of developed but not proofed exposures, and contact sheets made from about 3,000 rolls. The Garry Winogrand Archive at the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) comprises over 20,000 fine and work prints, 20,000 contact sheets, 100,000 negatives and 30,500 35mm colour slides as well as a small group of Polaroid prints and several amateur motion picture films.
Winogrand was influenced by Walker Evans and Robert Frank and their respective publications American Photographs and The Americans. Henri Cartier-Bresson was another influence although stylistically different. Winogrand was known for his portrayal of American life in the early 1960s. Many of his photographs depict the social issues of his time and in the role of media in shaping attitudes. He roamed the streets of New York with his 35mm Leica camera rapidly taking photographs using a prefocused wide angle lens. His pictures frequently appeared as if they were driven by the energy of the events he was witnessing.
Winogrand's photographs of the Bronx Zoo and the Coney Island Aquarium made up his first book The Animals (1969), a collection of pictures that observes the connections between humans and animals. His book Public Relations (1977) shows press conferences with deer-in-the-headlight writers and politicians, protesters beaten by cops, and museum parties frequented by the self-satisfied cultural glitterati. These photographs capture the evolution of a uniquely 20th and 21st century phenomenon, the event created to be documented. In Stock Photographs (1980), Winogrand published his views of the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show and Rodeo.
At the time of his death there was discovered about 2,500 rolls of undeveloped film, 6,500 rolls of developed but not proofed exposures, and contact sheets made from about 3,000 rolls. The Garry Winogrand Archive at the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) comprises over 20,000 fine and work prints, 20,000 contact sheets, 100,000 negatives and 30,500 35mm colour slides as well as a small group of Polaroid prints and several amateur motion picture films.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 4, 2013
I imagine this comparison has been made before, but throughout the exhibit I kept thinking how much Winogrand's photography reminded me of Degas's paintings. They shared a very un-Western sense of composition- rather than framing the world as an orderly and knowable totality, their frames actually communicated excess- that more was happening than the artist/ subject was capable of taking in or understanding.
The two men's gaze also shared a blatantly leering quality towards the female form, but in neither case does this strike me as misogynistic. If the two artists desire the women they depict, they at least are blatant about it rather than hiding behind some "lofty" pretension that they are merely "contemplating the ideal," as so many western artists have, throughout the ages, used as an excuse to paint or photograph lots and lots of nudes. Winogrand and Degas did not, in fact, do nudes, but presented women in social spaces and situations in which their sexuality was very much at play- both as social weapon and as vulnerability. And both men's assertion that art could only present the unknoweableness of the world reinforces the sense that there is much to these women that neither artist claims to understand or possess. Indeed, both oeuvres leave one with a sense of loneliness.
More than Degas, I got a sense of general misanthropy from Winogrand. There are moments of confused empathy, as when an African-American girl lies motionless on the beach as white children play around her. You, and you sense Winogrand, don't know if she's hurt or just resting, and noone around her seems to care. But generally, Winogrand seems to be laughing grimly to himself about his subjects. You sense that he doesn't wish pain on people, but simply thinks humanity, left to its own resources, is doomed. The young Winogrand, at lease, seems to think it better to laugh at the non-sensicality of life, than to cry about it.
If his photos provide any clue, that seemed to change in Winogrand's last years, after he moved from NYC to LA and his health started failing. The "flash" of the world, its excess, seemed to no longer seem a surreal circus as a fading light. Life remained incomprehensible, but the mystery started to seem, and look, cheap and empty. I actually thought these late photos as powerful as the youthful, energetic ones, but they are definitely, quietly, a downer.
The two men's gaze also shared a blatantly leering quality towards the female form, but in neither case does this strike me as misogynistic. If the two artists desire the women they depict, they at least are blatant about it rather than hiding behind some "lofty" pretension that they are merely "contemplating the ideal," as so many western artists have, throughout the ages, used as an excuse to paint or photograph lots and lots of nudes. Winogrand and Degas did not, in fact, do nudes, but presented women in social spaces and situations in which their sexuality was very much at play- both as social weapon and as vulnerability. And both men's assertion that art could only present the unknoweableness of the world reinforces the sense that there is much to these women that neither artist claims to understand or possess. Indeed, both oeuvres leave one with a sense of loneliness.
More than Degas, I got a sense of general misanthropy from Winogrand. There are moments of confused empathy, as when an African-American girl lies motionless on the beach as white children play around her. You, and you sense Winogrand, don't know if she's hurt or just resting, and noone around her seems to care. But generally, Winogrand seems to be laughing grimly to himself about his subjects. You sense that he doesn't wish pain on people, but simply thinks humanity, left to its own resources, is doomed. The young Winogrand, at lease, seems to think it better to laugh at the non-sensicality of life, than to cry about it.
If his photos provide any clue, that seemed to change in Winogrand's last years, after he moved from NYC to LA and his health started failing. The "flash" of the world, its excess, seemed to no longer seem a surreal circus as a fading light. Life remained incomprehensible, but the mystery started to seem, and look, cheap and empty. I actually thought these late photos as powerful as the youthful, energetic ones, but they are definitely, quietly, a downer.
March 8, 2018
I’m a HUGE fan of Winogrand’s work in general and of this collection in particular. I don’t know much about capital-P Photography or high art or how to view through a properly ~sophisticated~ and ~cultured~ lens, but Winogrand’s photography is so brilliant because its truth is so plain. His photographs — all candid photos taken of unsuspecting strangers in New York City — reveal secret micro-emotions and glances and motives and interactions that are self-contained, arresting stories in their own right. Many of the images are incidentally and inescapably political, and almost all had me lingering over their stark composition and unarticulated complexity. I’ll be flipping through this book and all of its stories and hidden lives for years.
December 9, 2019
Un volume ponderoso a catalogo di una mostra della fondazione spagnola MAPFRE: tantissime foto e saggi di corredo. Il lavoro di Winogrand non è semplicissimo da afferrare e presenta punti controversi ancora oggi, anche a causa delle affermazioni sfuggenti dell'autore mentre era in vita. Questo volume aiuta a fare chiarezza e a guardare all'intera opera di uno dei grandi della fotografia statunitense, nume tutelare della street photography.
Tutti i testi sono degni di lettura ma mi ha colpito soprattutto quello di Tod Papageorge, non perché il più chiarificatore ma perché è l'unico che riesce a portare in vita Winogrand mentre lo si legge, in tutta la sua forza trascinatrice.
Tutti i testi sono degni di lettura ma mi ha colpito soprattutto quello di Tod Papageorge, non perché il più chiarificatore ma perché è l'unico che riesce a portare in vita Winogrand mentre lo si legge, in tutta la sua forza trascinatrice.
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March 20, 20233.5*
January 22, 2017
"A veces siento como si [...] el mundo fuera un lugar para el que he comprado una entrada. Un gran espectáculo dirigido a mí, como si nada fuera a suceder a menos que yo estuviera allí con mi cámara."
G. W.
La fundación Mapfre ha editado la traducción de este excelente catálogo, editado originalmente por Leo Rubinfien, provechando la exposición de Garry Winogrand en la misma Fundación Mapfre, en Madrid del 25 al 3 de mayo de 2015.
Contiene, además de los textos traducidos y de las fotografías que aparecen en la versión original, un corto prólogo de Antonio Huertas Mejías, presidente de la fundación.
G. W.
La fundación Mapfre ha editado la traducción de este excelente catálogo, editado originalmente por Leo Rubinfien, provechando la exposición de Garry Winogrand en la misma Fundación Mapfre, en Madrid del 25 al 3 de mayo de 2015.
Contiene, además de los textos traducidos y de las fotografías que aparecen en la versión original, un corto prólogo de Antonio Huertas Mejías, presidente de la fundación.
December 9, 2017
This book is a masterpiece. The large collection of images alone would make a stunning book, and the texts alone would be worth buying, especially Rubifien's very detailed and fascinating introduction. The two combined make for an unforgettable reading experience.
Winogrand's images are not of the most accessible kind, but when one does take the time to try and understand why his work matters, a whole new world opens and this is where the various texts play their role. The creation of this book was an immense effort and the result is stupendous. I wish all photography books were as good.
Winogrand's images are not of the most accessible kind, but when one does take the time to try and understand why his work matters, a whole new world opens and this is where the various texts play their role. The creation of this book was an immense effort and the result is stupendous. I wish all photography books were as good.
August 31, 2017
Such a great book. It took me a while to understand Winogrand and this book was the right tool to explore his work.
December 31, 2021
Inspiring.
Going through someone’s lifetime work within a book, it gives me a mixed feeling.
Part of looking at old photographs is that you can’t help but thinking that a lot of these faces that you are looking at have already been dead, crazy.
Even great photographers need to accumulate so much work in order to get a few good ones, even Garry winogrand has a lot of bad and mediocre pictures
Just keep producing.
Going through someone’s lifetime work within a book, it gives me a mixed feeling.
Part of looking at old photographs is that you can’t help but thinking that a lot of these faces that you are looking at have already been dead, crazy.
Even great photographers need to accumulate so much work in order to get a few good ones, even Garry winogrand has a lot of bad and mediocre pictures
Just keep producing.
July 19, 2023
Some -very rare- brilliant photos. But so many mediocre photos of women in bikini. His best photos were from the beginning of his career in the 60's in NYC, his hometown. We can feel his fascination for the never ending show of people's lives in the streets. His curiosity and playfulness to record pure moments of joy, focus or sadness. So many great photos, so many creepy and mediocre one. A photographer's work that I will rapidly forget.
May 10, 2025
Una delusione. Intanto la qualità della stampa non è granché. ci sono alcune immagini iconiche ma non valorizzate. moltissime altre per me sono insignificanti, casuali. Se dovessi giudicare da questo libro, stenterei a giudicarlo un maestro.
April 13, 2018
"The mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible." --OW
March 16, 2019
It’s a big book.
Every photo could be a still from a movie. I wonder what he thought when he was searching for these pictures to appear.
Great work, obviously.
Every photo could be a still from a movie. I wonder what he thought when he was searching for these pictures to appear.
Great work, obviously.
April 27, 2024
Yes, Garry Winogrand was a master of street photography, and yes , he is considered one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century, and yes, he's worth studying if you're into photography.
May 15, 2013
This is a truly wonderful book. Leo Rubinfien's essay was a pleasure to read. I am glad that this catalogue exists as a document for a memorable exhibition.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews