And speaking of Garry Winogrand, as I
often do (that's him above),there’s currently a huge exhibition of his work at the San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art. Winogrand hated
the term “street photographer” but most people would think that’s precisely what
he was. The thing about street
photographers is that they walk the streets themselves and take lots of pictures
of other people who are also walking. I
find this enormously appealing.
Winogrand was a New Yorker, through and
through, who grew up in the Bronx, and I think it’s fair to say that the
majority of his best pictures were taken in New York, but he worked plenty of
other places too. There was a great
early series that became a book, The Great American Rodeo. He even took some pictures in England.
Towards the end of his life he moved to
Los Angeles and took a lot of pictures there too. By then however he wasn’t doing much
walking. He got people to drive him
around and he took pictures out the windows.
The received wisdom is that this isn’t the very best way to take
photographs, certainly not “street photographs,” and that it indicated a great
falling off in the quality of his work.
This is an occasion when The recievde wisdom appears to be true.
However, I just found the wonderful picture above by Ted
Pushinsky showing Winogrand on Hollywood Boulevard, at the corner of Whitley
Avenue. Winogrand was, however briefly,
a genuine Hollywood Walker. He does look a little
No comments:
Post a Comment