Most of you will be familiar with the extraordinary talent that was Garry Winogrand, a street photographer renowned for his portrayal of mid-20th century America who died in 1984. Winogrand has been an enormous influence on subsequent generations of street photographers and there is now, understandably, a renewed interest in his work. Winogrand is very much associated with black and white street photography but a large body of colour work does exist from the period 1958-1964 but is very difficult to locate.
Single colour street images by Winogrand have tantalisingly appeared here and there, the first picture below from 1963 was published in Bystander but the subsequent images have largely never before been published as far as I am aware. So it is with great pleasure that I am able to present them here on sevensevennine.com.
In Bystander Joel Meyerowitz says that…
“Garry also shot a lot of color, but on assignment and on trips and things like that. He didn’t see it as a major force”
When I asked Joel to elaborate a little on what Garry’s relationship with colour was, this is what he said…
“Garry was comfortable with color and didn’t have any strong feelings against it. I think he used it mainly for his commercial work as he often carried a Nikon with a long lens on it to make what he called “schmaltz” which means in Yiddish, fatty, or sentimental, or sweet, overripe…etc. For example, violinists who play at weddings usually render “schmaltzy versions of love songs.” But he also was carrying a second Leica with color in it and he loved showing slide shows of that work, once even showing it at MoMA when John did a show of Garry’s work. My guess is that since the times didn’t support color printing very easily he simply didn’t see any reason to emphasize it then. perhaps if color printing was as it is today he would have been thinking in those terms more frequently, but who knows?”
Many thanks to those who assisted me in acquiring these images, I think it is historically important that they are available to excite and influence those of us continuing to work like Garry Winogrand today.
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A Selection of Garry Winogrand’s Colour images can be seen at The QUAD Gallery at The Format International Photography Festival in Derby until the 8th May.
March 29th, 2011 - 10:50 am
Unexpected.. but oh so lovely. Thanks for sharing! I thought I remember reading that he used a 300mm telephoto for assignments which you wouldn’t know from looking at his published books. Who knew he also shot color? Either way, he was a master of monochrome and color and these photos make me appreciate Garry Winogrand even more. When can we expect another book?
March 29th, 2011 - 1:29 pm
Mmmm. These are all excellent. Black and white hasn’t been satisfying my photographic hunger lately – these all hit the spot.
March 29th, 2011 - 3:12 pm
Man you made my day. Week. Month. Year. etc.
March 30th, 2011 - 7:47 am
Thanks a lot for sharing! I hope someone will make a book out of it some day.
March 30th, 2011 - 8:27 pm
Two things have always stuck in my mind about Winograd, other than his famous quotes. One was his reply to someone on a workshop who asked if he was worried about missing a shot while he was swapping film out of his Leica. His reply was something along the lines that if he didn’t have a camera ready there was no shot to be had. This is actually pretty profound yet gets passed over for his other quotes.
The other thing is that he didn’t develop his film until a couple of years after the event. Reckoned that this gave him enough distance so as not to be swayed in his judgement by his mood at the time of shooting.
An aside – he stated that Paul Strand was a photographer who he admired and I believe that if anyone wants to really understand photography they could do a lot worse than to study the connections from the first of the modern photographers through to Winograd.
Many see street photography as a sort of punk photography whereas it is pretty firmly rooted in the fine art tradition. Winograd and Strand were both artists before they were photographers as was Bresson of course but that is a whole other story.
Nice site btw found you via your street photography video.
March 31st, 2011 - 1:17 pm
Priceless. Thanks for sharing. By the way I recall what I think (?) is one of your photograph (Nick) that looks quite similar to the plane model shadow shot.
April 3rd, 2011 - 1:31 am
[...] Garry Winogrand en color / Seven sevennine [...]
April 4th, 2011 - 6:51 am
Garry was a huge influence on me and on many I know. Yet I never heard of this work. A revelation. Thank you for showing us. As for myself, I’m returning to photography after a long hiatus. Now I’m using a digital camera and color whereas I previously used black & white film. Whenever I shot color in the past I always liked it and regretted that it was so much more expensive and complicated to develop and print. As I see it, either the color is emphasized and a photo may be produced for its color primarily, or else the color is just one element of “how it looks.” I subscribe to the latter view and, personally, I’m glad to be able to “turn on” that aspect of the image in my own work.
April 4th, 2011 - 2:34 pm
[...] – PAG 111. “¿Cómo serían las fotografías de Garry winnogrand en color? Respuesta: sevensevennine [...]
April 6th, 2011 - 5:26 am
I like the old color, but some of these images are pedestrian in their composition and subject. Winogrand was a great street photographer but that doesn’t mean that every street photo he made is great.
Still- an interesting gallery worth viewing.
April 6th, 2011 - 4:46 pm
[...] Garry Winogrand Unseen Color curated by Joel Meyerowitz for the Format Festival [...]
April 19th, 2011 - 6:30 pm
I love the atmosphere on your pictures. SOmetimes wish to live in the 60-70´ies
June 4th, 2011 - 1:59 am
A fascinating series. Thanks for showing these.
March 8th, 2012 - 2:19 pm
Great. I have not seen this Images by Garry Winogrand before. Thanks for the post.