Winogrand impressions

[jmack]

When discussing Garry Winogrand with photographers they seem

unimpressed with his style.I was wondering if he was just

something street photographers admire and understood .The street

style with the 28mm seems universal today.Street images before

winogrand look as though they were shot with a fifty or 35.

[dennis_couvillion]

Winogrand's wide-angle style may simply reflect an evolutionary aspect of street photography. For one thing, a wide angle lens that is stopped down will have much greater depth of field so more is in focuse, and precise focusing is not as critical as with a 50mm lens. Years ago I had sveral friends who were photojournalists and invariably their lens of choice on their Nikons was usually a 24mm. The images looked sharp and in focus and could be easily cropped. I also read somewhere that Winogrand usually shot Tri-X at 800 which allowed him to shoot in lower light. However, in daylight, his lens probably would have been stopped down significantly so that depth of field would have been even greater. Winogrand was a compulsive shooter who, it is said, could shoot a roll before crossing the street. I suspect that he shot very fast and, like many street shooters, simply pre-focused much of the time.

 

Also consider the evolution of modern lenses. To my knowledge, good wide-angle rangefinder lenses were not as common back in the day. A 50mm lens was standard and 35mm was probably the most available wide-angle lens. And then, the 35mm lens was probabaly most available in an f3.5 version. By the time Winogrand was shooting with a 28mm lens Leica had produced a relatively fast, f2.8, lens.

 

Winogrand's photos are an acquired taste, I've found. Some of his stuff I like very much, such as the shot of the legless beggar. However, some of his stuff seems too random and pointless to me.

 

Dennis

[Spearhead]

Winogrand's popularity/acceptance has nothing to do with his choice of lenses. It is very much connected to his way of seeing, which challenges the viewer and makes the viewer do as much work as the photographer. He often presented more rather than less, different from other photographers who work to simplify.

[dennis_couvillion]

"Winogrand's popularity/acceptance has nothing to do with his choice of lenses. It is very much connected to his way of seeing, which challenges the viewer and makes the viewer do as much work as the photographer. He often presented more rather than less, different from other photographers who work to simplify."

 

...but his choice of lens conveys "his way of seeing", presenting more rather than less.

[bill_schmidt]

OK, I know this is trivial but I want to discuss Winogrand's photos (live). Is his last name pronouced WINE-o-grand or WIN-o-grand?

[ellis_vener_photography]

The way Garry Winogrand photographed was somewhat revolutionary 25-30 years ago but

now a lot of that approach has been absorbed into the mainstream of photography and

has been turned into stylistic mannerisms by the less gifted. Garry did shoot compulsively

especially in the last years of his life-- but he also edited very rigourously when he was

healthier & happier. A lot of what he did has come out since his death but I have trouble

believing he would have chosen it.

 

I also think that maybe like many successful artists GW found himself in a box canyon --

walled in by his own success and other people's expectations. Would he have continued

shooting the way he has become famous for, or would he have evolved as an artist? Most

people don't know his early work from the late 1940s and 1950s.

[ellis_vener_photography]

He pronounced it closer to When-ogrand. And the correct spelling of his firrst name is

with two r's.

[Spearhead]

<i>...but his choice of lens conveys "his way of seeing", presenting more rather than less.</i><p>

 

One can isolate with a wide lens - I do it often, presenting a large and simple backdrop for a single subject. One can also present a fairly busy view with a telephoto, if that is what one wants.<p>

 

His choice of lens is among the least important things about his work. I think Ellis knows far more about him than he is letting on here, and could probably offer quite a bit of insight.

[roger krueger]

Dennis: Are you sure that's a beggar? With all the guys in VFW/American Legion hats I just

assumed he was a disabled vet headed to some sort of veteran's convention (since they're

outside a bus terminal, and he's of the same generation as the other guys). But on looking

at it again, I can see your point of view too--why is he wearing a plain cap?

 

I have a hard time admitting I like the image, given its exploitive nature, but I do. It packs

an tremendous punch to the gut.

[leslie_cheung]

>>>>I have a hard time admitting I like the image, given its

exploitive nature, but I do. It packs an tremendous punch to the

gut.<<<<

 

What exactly is the exploitative nature you are refering to?

[jmack]

Mason Resnick took a workshop with Winogrand and learned how to gang print every thing he shot .I e-mailed him a few times as I had a hard time believing that.Mason said you really could not tell till the image was printed 8x10.He would expose one sheet after another and put it a box then put a bunch of them in dektol and move them around then fix them .He would do 3 to five rolls ending up with a large amount of rough prints claiming the whole process was important

[._._z]

<u><A href =

http://www.photogs.com/bwworld/winogrand.html>

Resnick on Winogrand:</a></u> <p>

 

<i><blockquote> Winogrand developed by inspection to avoid overly contrasty or flat

negativves. He would make contacts, then make 8x10 prints of everything but

technically inferior negs. "I need to see what they look like large before I can make

selections," he explained. To save time, he exposed the negatives in bulk--a hundred

or so 8x10 or 11x14 prints at a time. As he finished one exposure, he put the print in a

box and exposed the next negative. When he was done, he would develop the prints en

masse. </blockquote> </i><p>

[todd frederick]

I wonder what he would have done with digital.

[._._z]

Why, do you think his photos would look much different?

[leslie_cheung]

>>>>Why, do you think his photos would look much

different?<<<<

 

probably not though he would've been even more prolific.

[dford]

My personal favorite photography quote - I photograph to find out what something will look when photographed. GW

[berton_chang4]

though I think the lens makes a big difference (I use a 28-35mm equivalent in all my camera's including medium format) I think his stuff still makes it today because of his editing technique. My old professor once told us (while he was doing his MFA at yale) that Winogrand told one student he didn't take enough photos. though the showed him maybe 10-20 pictures, winogrand revealed to him, 'I shot 15 rolls last week round one corner of a city block'.

 

I guess that says something about his percentage of success.

[andrew_hull]

I think it was Winograndt who responded to someone asking "Did you just take my picture?", with the comment, "No, I just took my picture".

[over exposure]

Winogrand is one of my favorites, surely..his style of recording the life around him always hits my senses...What i most like of him, among many street shooters, is that he made photographs so intensively and so naturally, just like breathing...in his photos is highly visible the fact that he just had an intense sense of perception of the world around him...a poet in the crowd.

 

Best regards to everyone.

[chaps]

I met Garry Winogrand when he met with some of us mfa students at rit. I believe it was in the small gallery where some of his work was hanging. He was personable, and struck me as intuitive, almost anti-intellectual. A longshoreman poet. One grad student, sort of like one the know-it-alls that you run into here, asked Winograd a smart @ss question. Winogrand acted very angry, raised his voice at the student and told him, "you'll never make an image" referring to the over-intellectualized approach being expressed. It was remarkable and I could feel Winogrand's passion and a shared dislike to overthinking the process. I immediately liked him. When he talked about his work, it was almost as though he shot to surprise himself, always on the edge, informed but almost like a reflex, exploring and discovering.

 

From what little I know of Mr. Winogrand, I believe that he would have loved digital in its present form, as he loved to shoot alot, almost like a Zen artist who makes 100 rapid gestural ink paintings to get one keeper. I can only surmise that he would have enjoyed the rapid feeback and editing to get to the keepers.

 

He liked to be out shooting and immersed in the process. He was down to earth and did not put on airs or deify himself.

 

-Paul Chaplo