GARRY
WINOGRAND
Garry
Winogrand, a man who defined street photography as an attitude as well as
style, was born in January 1928 in
the Bronx. In 1948 he enrolled at Columbia University to study painting, before
taking a photojournalism course, where his passion for photography began. He
was obsessive and prolific. He worked as a freelance photojournalist and
advertising photographer in the 1950s and 1960s.Winogrand said ‘Photography is
about finding out what can happen in the frame.’ He loved to capture moments.
Winogrand’s style is, in a way, the most difficult style, because the world he
depicts is often so different that you yourself wouldn’t stop to look at it.
This
image is called Albuquerque, New Mexico by Garry Winogrand. There is some kind
of mystery behind this picture which is brilliantly captured by the
photographer. This picture depicts a small child standing in a drive way of a
house labeled 208. Inside a driveway there is an abandoned tricycle. Behind the
house there are beautiful mountains of New Mexico, Sandia Mountains. There are
heavy clouds casting a shadow on the mountains. Next to the building near the
bottom of the photo is a small bush. In the photo you can only see the garage,
but there are no neighbors in sight, only the small child in the driveway,
lifting its arms. Garry Winogrand seems to be in the right place at the right
time for this picture and it is not just a matter of luck as Winogrand’s eyes
were fully trained to see things differently.
When we
first look at the picture, our eyes see the highlights in the picture i.e. a
small child with a mysterious pose in a drive way and then we see the mid tones
i.e. mountains in a picture then we look back at the highlights and a
mysterious surrounding which creates the tension in a picture. Because of its composition this photograph leaves
a viewer with a sense of wonder, mystery and perhaps a feeling of darkness. Winogrand
succeeded to capture a once in a life time moment in this photograph. This was
a modern building in the middle of nowhere, but it is now in the middle
of surrounding city and neighbors aged with time. Winogrand loved paintings and
his pictures definitely depict his sense about paintings. This picture is a true photograph. We can’t paint this
photograph because it is actually a wonderful and mysterious moment captured by
Garry Winogrand.
-Kamran Yousaf
Excellent Review!!
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