Garry Winogrand was born in New York City in 1928, where he later started his photography career. He was first introduced to photography in the late 1940s while he was joined in the US Air Force, and in a few years to come he would pick up his first camera and not let it down until his early death in 1984. After Winogrands term of duty, he enrolled himself in City College in New York City to study painting. One year later, while studying both painting and photography at Columbia University, he met George Zimbel. George being a student and photographer for the Columbia Spectator, the university newspaper, was able to introduce Garry to the darkroom in the college. This would be the first time Garry was introduced to the process of photography, and he loved it. During his 30 years of photography, he went on exhibiting throughout the United States and more. Garry shot in the streets of cities, from the hip, up close with a wide-angle lens, often tilting the camera. He was an amazing shooter and his images are known to photographers as the ‘decisive moment’.
Garry Winogrand’s passion and subject was America. He photographed the city and urban landscape, focusing on its unusual people and capturing odd moments and objects. Garry was inspired by not only Walker Evans’ 1938 book American Photographs, but also Robert Frank’s book The Americans 1958. Once Winogrand knew this was his passion, he set out to document contemporary life. His places of interest were your everyday city sites such as the zoo, the airport, and the rodeo, and spent countless hours photographing there. Garry Winogrand was a wanderer, roaming the globe aimlessly.
I really enjoy looking at Garry’s photos because they are from so many years before I was born. They are interesting because some may be serious while others make you laugh. Also, he was an old school photographer who was able to make awesome pictures without the help of programs we have today. I think what Garry’s work represents is an everyday American life in the city, and how somedays there are dark days but there’s always a brighter day, and that’s something I like to think whenever im having a bad day. I found him by accident and it was a perfect choice.
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