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Thread: Garry Winogrand Quote - "Why I Photograph"

  1. #1

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    Garry Winogrand Quote - "Why I Photograph"

    Thought this quote attributed to 60s street photograph, Garry Winogrand, may be of interest for discussion. Naturally, there are a great many reasons--or combinations thereof--why we are drawn to photography, and those reasons may change, deepen, expand, and mature over time, especially as we experience all sorts of changing personal and social conditions throughout our lives.

    I had trouble tracking down this quote that I heard a great many years ago. I like its rationale because it mirrors my own rather unsophisticated, non-tehnical, approach. It reminds me of the excitement of pouring over a roll of newly processed transparencies on my light table... just to see what's there.

    Loosely paraphrased... "I photograph to see what things look like photographed."

    I readily identify with this approach. Thoughts?

  2. #2

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    Re: Garry Winogrand Quote - "Why I Photograph"

    I hate that quote. Then again I've never liked his work.

    --Darin

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    8x20 8x10 John Jarosz's Avatar
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    Re: Garry Winogrand Quote - "Why I Photograph"

    I remember him saying that in class. He certainly was his own person.

    but:
    Naturally, there are a great many reasons--or combinations thereof--why we are drawn to photography, and those reasons may change, deepen, expand, and mature over time, especially as we experience all sorts of changing personal and social conditions throughout our lives.
    Whenever the discussion about a particular photograph got too esoteric (for him) he would say: "But the photograph is only light and shadow". That usually got everyone back to (his) subject.

    John

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    ic-racer's Avatar
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    Re: Garry Winogrand Quote - "Why I Photograph"

    Quote Originally Posted by Sal Favata View Post
    Loosely paraphrased... "I photograph to see what things look like photographed."

    Thoughts?
    He is 'The Man!' After 30 years I am still excited by curiosity of wondering what things are going to look like in a photograph.

  5. #5
    8x20 8x10 John Jarosz's Avatar
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    Re: Garry Winogrand Quote - "Why I Photograph"

    Yes. And after all this time I never tire of watching a print come up in the developer. It's like watching a photograph that's a movie.

  6. #6
    Dave Karp
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    Re: Garry Winogrand Quote - "Why I Photograph"

    It boils a lot of ideas/feelings down into a concise, if not completely informative, statement. I like it.

    I photograph because it is fun, I like to work in the darkroom, and I like to see what the photographs look like when I am done. In other words, I like to see what I can create. I enjoy the entire process.

    What else is there?

  7. #7
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    Re: Garry Winogrand Quote - "Why I Photograph"

    Works for me.

    You can find the idea in broader context about halfway down in this discussion: Garry Winogrand interview by Barbaralee Diamonstein

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    Re: Garry Winogrand Quote - "Why I Photograph"

    Quote Originally Posted by Sal Favata View Post
    Loosely paraphrased... "I photograph to see what things look like photographed."
    That is an extremely passive approach to photography. Given the number of undeveloped rolls he is said to have left, one might also question, if he made that statement, whether he was telling the truth.
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    Re: Garry Winogrand Quote - "Why I Photograph"

    My thought on that thought by Winogrand is that I pretty much know what the photograph is going to look like when I take it. It's called "previsualization" and after some 50,000 images I tend to subscribe to the concept.

    The only "trap" in that previsualization concept is that when you get to know almost exactly what the print will look like - why bother to print it.

    Thus my larger joy now is simply getting out and finding the scene. Perhaps if it's extraordinary I'll end up printing it.

    Nate Potter, Austin TX.

  10. #10

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    Re: Garry Winogrand Quote - "Why I Photograph"

    A lot of artists in every field say vaguely provocative broad statements. I have found, though, that almost to a person, when I find someone whose work I love in any field, they almost always are extremely articulate about their work, if they are the type that says anything at all. My explanation for this is that the same mushy-ness of thought that goes into pithy quotes like that is also the same brain behind the work they create.

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