Garry winogrand photography biography templates

While Henri-Cartier Bresson’s name gets thrown around as the godfather of street photography, I would argue that when many people think of the genre, what first pops into their heads is the style of Garry Winogrand, and he would probably be turning in his grave right now given that he famously hated the term.

The energetic and restless Winogrand incessantly captured daily life in New York City and America from the ’50s to the early ‘80s, and his body of work defined the post-World War II era America, filled with opulence and power, but mixed with a deep underlying anxiety.

Born in 1928 as a Bronx native, Winogrand studied photography at the New School under Alexey Brodovitch in 1949, who taught him to rely on his instinct rather than classical techniques, and it is clear that this advice stuck and helped him define his style. His work was documentary but spontaneous in nature, and focused on the human condition.

Winogrand often employed tilted horizons and angles to fit more into the scene, while removing a sense of perfection and overt design. This helped his work feel more real, dynamic, anxiety ridden, and in the moment. It seems as if he purposely sought to distance himself from a more classical and orderly style and this helped mimic the spontaneous and chaotic nature of the moments and subjects that he was attracted to.

While he photographed in a quick and spontaneous way, when evaluating his work, it is clear that he had a sharp focus with clear narratives. He published four books in his lifetime, Women are Beautiful, The Animals, Public Relations, and Stock Photographs: The Fort Worth Fat Stock Show and Rodeo. However, these four bodies of work do not do justice to the full scope of his life’s work and vision, and it was actually the posthumous publications of his work that address this.

Jeff Rosenheim, curator in charge of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s department of photog

American street photographer (1928–1984)

Garry Winogrand (; January 14, 1928 – March 19, 1984) was an American street photographer, who portrayed U.S. life and its social issues in the mid-20th century. Photography curator, historian, and critic John Szarkowski called Winogrand the central photographer of his generation.

He received three Guggenheim Fellowships to work on personal projects, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and published four books during his lifetime. He was one of three photographers featured in the influential New Documents exhibition at Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1967 and had solo exhibitions there in 1969, 1977, and 1988. He supported himself by working as a freelance photojournalist and advertising photographer in the 1950s and 1960s, and taught photography in the 1970s. His photographs were featured in photography magazines including Popular Photography,Eros,Contemporary Photographer, and Photography Annual.

Critic Sean O'Hagan wrote in 2014 that in "the 1960s and 70s, he defined street photography as an attitude as well as a style – and it has laboured in his shadow ever since, so definitive are his photographs of New York"; and in 2010 that though he photographed elsewhere, "Winogrand was essentially a New York photographer: frenetic, in-your-face, arty despite himself." Phil Coomes, writing for BBC News in 2013, said "For those of us interested in street photography there are a few names that stand out and one of those is Garry Winogrand, whose pictures of

Summary of Garry Winogrand

Garry Winogrand's bizarre and visually compelling photographs of American life during the 1960s catapulted his status as one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. Throwing away the established traditions of Street Photography set forth by his predecessors, his photographs often appear haphazard, tilted, and poorly composed - what came to be called the 'snapshot aesthetic'. However, this unique aesthetic helped emphasize his subject matter, which challenged preconceptions of American society and the post-WWII optimism captured by commercial photography. His skewed and off-center images paradoxically united discordant elements into one composition, allowing the viewer to engage with his subjects in new and unusual ways. In so doing, Winogrand influenced an entire generation of photographers and artists to push the boundaries of what photography as a medium could be and what it could expose. Winogrand's prolific body of work is best known through the photo books he published.

Accomplishments

• Rather than allowing the scenes he photographed to happen as he maintained a passive stance, as traditional street photographers had done, he intruded into his subject's physical space. This allowed him to startle and provoke his subjects as he shot them and thus to capture their startled and strange glances. For Winogrand, the photographs that most interested him were ones that both shocked himself as well as his audience. This resulted in images with a novel point of view that challenged viewers to question what photography's role was in American society, and what photography could reveal.
• Known for walking down the streets of New York City snapping the shutter with the camera held ajar and far away from his eye, Winogrand intentionally broke the rules of composition - his images are frequently blurry cut off his subject's bodies. Deviating from the glossy, balanced compositions of his predecessors, Winogrand captured the