Winogrand: Figments from the Real World

Lately I’ve been putting effort into looking at the work of other photographers. If I find someone whose work I especially enjoy, I’ll invest in a book of that photographer’s work and refer to it every now and again. Other times, checking out books from my local library suffices just fine.

Yesterday I posted something about Saul Leiter, whose work I’ve come to admire a great deal. His was a quiet, more reflective style that I’ve come to identify with a great deal. I have a harder time relating with Garry Winogrand’s approach.

I was certain of that much after I checked out my public library’s copy of Winogrand: Figments from the Real World (1988), an excellent survey of this photographer’s work assembled by John Szarkowski, who was director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York until his retirement in 1991.

Much like I do with lengthy academic introductions that accompany classic works of literature, I usually simply skip over such bloviation and jump right into the work itself. That applies all the more to photography books. I usually find that the photographs can speak for themselves without some art critic else telling me what to think of them.

In the case of this book, however, Szarkowski offered some thoughtful and at times blunt commentary that helped put Winogrand’s work into meaningful context. Biographical details usually help shed light on anyone’s work. What Szarkowski had to say about Winogrand’s life certainly accomplished this.

I imagine that Winogrand was the kind of guy whose energy was infectious. This is purely speculation on my part: if you enjoy having a good time at a bar, then Winogrand would have been your kind of guy. His fearlessness certainly shows in his photography.

I think the thing that stuck with me most was the last bit in the final sentence of Szarkowski’s introduction: Winogrand’s “ambition was not to make good pictures, but through photography to know life.” I like to think that my photography has often served as a vehicle for me to get out there and gain experiences I would not have otherwise gotten. I get the impression that Winogrand approached his work in much the same way.

Szarkowski broke his survey into nine sections tailored around various themes including “The Street,” “Women,” “The Zoo,” and “Airport.” His approach effectively conveyed how wide Winogrand’s photographic interests were.

Some of Winogrand’s photography has the kind of subtly I like to exercise myself. I’m thinking in particular of an image he took in New York in 1961 showing nothing more than the legs of a man and woman walking side-by-side, the woman’s shadow showing her cigarette in hand, and the foot of a third person on the extreme upper right of the frame.

But these understated street images are overshadowed by the sheer number of those Winogrand made with his rather up-front style of shooting.

Most of Winogrand’s photography draws me in as much as it makes me squirm just a bit in my seat. I often try to imagine the possible aftermath that sometimes might have ensued after Winogrand fired the shutter. How did his subjects feel after he photographed them, and how did they express themselves to him? Were they annoyed, or did they simply ignore him? Whatever the case, there’s no denying the power of many of these images.

In a nutshell, I found myself admiring Winogrand’s work without feeling the need to emulate it.