Garry Winogrand Quote - "Why I Photograph"

[paulr]

"Writing About Music is Like Dancing About Architecture"

Except that some people write brilliantly about music. And about photography, and about the other arts. I'm thankful to critics who help me see better. I file it under Free Education.

I wish we could get away from the idea that talking about art = looking for "deep philosophical meanings" = bullshit.

Yeah, there is bullshit criticism, just as there's bullshit everything else. But most criticism doesn't concern itself with deep meanings of any kind. There many ways to look at a work and many kinds of things we can look for.

Winogrand was answering a question about motivation, which is really a personal or biographical question much more than an art criticism question.

Artists often say the damndest things when asked about their intentions. And they change their stories often. Maybe it's because the most honest answer is often "I felt compelled to do this," which doesn't sound smart enough.

[Mark Sawyer]

Very much in agreement, Paul. Thank you!

[Marco Polo]

Below is an interesting take on Garry Winogrand from the perspective of a former student. One fascinating tidbit is how he developed his negatives by inspection, similar to what Weston did.

http://www.americansuburbx.com/2011/...ith-garry.html

[John Jarosz]

That's a very good link. I'll say that my experience (one semester, in 1970) is pretty much exactly as described in that essay. Our class was made up of second year students, and we were pretty much in over our heads with Garry. The students (in their first year) had print quality drilled into their heads. Garry did not care about that at all, so it was a totally unexpected environment. At UT they were focused on the journalism approach so conforming to Winogrand's style may have been easier for students.

I don't remember seeing contact prints, but I do remember being in the big Institute of Design darkroom late one night when Garry came in with a 11x14 Polycontrast box of exposed paper. He pulled up a chair next to one of the long sinks and started putting sheets into the developer and pulling them out when he decided they had enough. He did this for about an hour, smoking and talking to us all the while. He was a very engaging guy.

But the classes themselves were exactly as described in that link. Thanks for posting that.