Me too...and no show catalog will make up for it. 🙂 Hopefully these guys make a 1964 book.
http://errataeditions.com/current_titles.html
Planning to buy that expensive out-of-print Gary Winogrand book. Well don't.....
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Me too...and no show catalog will make up for it. 🙂 Hopefully these guys make a 1964 book.
http://errataeditions.com/current_titles.html
I hear that...
Steve M.
Veteran
Thanks for the link sepiareverb. The early work that's shown, which is technically crap and not so sharp, is more powerful than the later, more in focus and sharp work. To me anyway. Great stuff. There's a magazine called The Sun that features B&W work that faintly reminds me of Winogrand's time and place.
There's an air of mystery and stoppage of time that I find fascinating. Rationally, that shot of the kid in the driveway w/ the upturned bike and that huge cloud behind them is apparently a snap he took whilst driving by. There's a ton of faults in it, but there's also something else going on in that shot. Call it spiritual, essence, whatever you will, but there's more than just a photo there. There's other shots in that link that are equally as good, but that one is scary to me. These shots could never be duplicated, they're a document of people, places, and attitudes that are long gone. It makes me want to get out there w/ some cheap B&W film and a small, crappy camera and see what happens. Of course, I know and you know that I won't come home w/ anything like Winogrand's photos, but it couldn't hurt either. I think it's more the idea that you go out, have a camera and some film, and just see where that leads you.
There's an air of mystery and stoppage of time that I find fascinating. Rationally, that shot of the kid in the driveway w/ the upturned bike and that huge cloud behind them is apparently a snap he took whilst driving by. There's a ton of faults in it, but there's also something else going on in that shot. Call it spiritual, essence, whatever you will, but there's more than just a photo there. There's other shots in that link that are equally as good, but that one is scary to me. These shots could never be duplicated, they're a document of people, places, and attitudes that are long gone. It makes me want to get out there w/ some cheap B&W film and a small, crappy camera and see what happens. Of course, I know and you know that I won't come home w/ anything like Winogrand's photos, but it couldn't hurt either. I think it's more the idea that you go out, have a camera and some film, and just see where that leads you.
MichaelW
Established
I have a few of their books, which are good as the only way to see the original layouts of incredibly rare books. However I'm always left wishing to see the photos reproduced bigger. Wish someone would just reprint the 1964 book. The cover shot is extraordinary, one of his best. I even wish that someone who owns the damn book would photograph the inside pages & post them on the 'net so I can get a sense of the page layout and image editing.
Hjortsberg
Well-known
victoriapio
Well-known
I had not read the extensive Chiarenza essay (both parts) but find them compelling.
Two opinions that really impressed me are:
"There is, of course, the possibility that the “process” of these late years represents the final letting go, relinquishing even the control of the restricting frame of the camera’s viewfinder, to accept and embrace a more complete kind of freedom. Certainly he knew that the success rate of picture to exposure would tend toward the ridiculous. But successes would be there for those who needed to see them in finished form. Winogrand
must have no longer needed, or wanted, to see what he already knew. To some extent, the thrill, the release, the art had, for him, always been in the act of making the camera exposure. He must have felt that he no longer needed to justify that act with a public document in the form of a print. In truth it seems he no longer had any interest in taking responsibility for anything beyond the process of releasing the shutter. He knew, finally, how things he photographed would look in his photographs."
"The medium makes it difficult for anyone, including the photographer, to distinguish between sketch and finished work. This line of reasoning underscores one of the major issues that artists using photography rather than traditional media face: how to distinguish between the sketch and the finished work. For photographers like Cartier-Bresson, Friedlander, and Winogrand, whose work is founded upon the idea of capturing a momentary configuration from the continuously active flux of public life, the process of creating a succession of negatives inevitably concludes with the selection of one of those negatives (sketches) from a proof sheet. That negative then becomes the source of the finished work. But the process is also open to the overproduction of exposures. It is easy to decide to make negatives even when there is little promise of an acceptable picture, leaving that decision to the later examination of proof sheets. Worse, many photographers find it difficult to accept the necessity of ruthlessly editing these sketches, and end up overproducing unsuccessful prints, which, due to the same weakness, find their way to publication and exhibition. In such situations the power of the best work is diminished by association."
Dr Chiarenza is not the first essayist to write such things but I do believe his is the best at pondering all the things we wondered about Winogrand, and putting the results into an enjoyable article. The real problem is that he encounters the main problem all writers come face-to-face with about Winogrand - and that is he is no longer around to confirm his opinion. Of course I suspect that if Garry was around, he either couldn't or wouldn't agree to be interviewed about such things.
I would like to clear up two things for Dr. Chiarenza, first "San Marcos" was famous for Aquarena Springs, a popular water based park that featured, yes, swimming pigs. How do you get a pig to swim? You hire an "aqua maid" to entice them with some milkin a milk bottle. Aquarina springs attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors each year during it's hey day, all coming to see the swimming pigs and crystal clear water. Second, Chiarenza was perplexed about Winogrand's livestock show photos. The real purpose of all the livestock shows is to perpetuate the ranching and farming industry by auctioning off the best livestock raised by students. Many animals sell for tens of thousands of dollars and pay for college educations for future ranchers and farmers.
Two opinions that really impressed me are:
"There is, of course, the possibility that the “process” of these late years represents the final letting go, relinquishing even the control of the restricting frame of the camera’s viewfinder, to accept and embrace a more complete kind of freedom. Certainly he knew that the success rate of picture to exposure would tend toward the ridiculous. But successes would be there for those who needed to see them in finished form. Winogrand
must have no longer needed, or wanted, to see what he already knew. To some extent, the thrill, the release, the art had, for him, always been in the act of making the camera exposure. He must have felt that he no longer needed to justify that act with a public document in the form of a print. In truth it seems he no longer had any interest in taking responsibility for anything beyond the process of releasing the shutter. He knew, finally, how things he photographed would look in his photographs."
"The medium makes it difficult for anyone, including the photographer, to distinguish between sketch and finished work. This line of reasoning underscores one of the major issues that artists using photography rather than traditional media face: how to distinguish between the sketch and the finished work. For photographers like Cartier-Bresson, Friedlander, and Winogrand, whose work is founded upon the idea of capturing a momentary configuration from the continuously active flux of public life, the process of creating a succession of negatives inevitably concludes with the selection of one of those negatives (sketches) from a proof sheet. That negative then becomes the source of the finished work. But the process is also open to the overproduction of exposures. It is easy to decide to make negatives even when there is little promise of an acceptable picture, leaving that decision to the later examination of proof sheets. Worse, many photographers find it difficult to accept the necessity of ruthlessly editing these sketches, and end up overproducing unsuccessful prints, which, due to the same weakness, find their way to publication and exhibition. In such situations the power of the best work is diminished by association."
Dr Chiarenza is not the first essayist to write such things but I do believe his is the best at pondering all the things we wondered about Winogrand, and putting the results into an enjoyable article. The real problem is that he encounters the main problem all writers come face-to-face with about Winogrand - and that is he is no longer around to confirm his opinion. Of course I suspect that if Garry was around, he either couldn't or wouldn't agree to be interviewed about such things.
I would like to clear up two things for Dr. Chiarenza, first "San Marcos" was famous for Aquarena Springs, a popular water based park that featured, yes, swimming pigs. How do you get a pig to swim? You hire an "aqua maid" to entice them with some milkin a milk bottle. Aquarina springs attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors each year during it's hey day, all coming to see the swimming pigs and crystal clear water. Second, Chiarenza was perplexed about Winogrand's livestock show photos. The real purpose of all the livestock shows is to perpetuate the ranching and farming industry by auctioning off the best livestock raised by students. Many animals sell for tens of thousands of dollars and pay for college educations for future ranchers and farmers.
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MikeL
Go Fish
fotomeow
name under my name
(FYI: rumor has it that SFMOMA will be CLOSING FOR 18 MONTHS for a complete renovation: the Winogrand show appears to be one of the BIG shows upon the grand reopening. We will miss SFMOMA on the west coast in the meantime}
Bike Tourist
Well-known
I never much cared for the rolls that were developed, so the next 2500 doesn't interest me.
I'm sure I'm in the minority on this.
I'm sure I'm in the minority on this.
Hjortsberg
Well-known
MISH
Well-known
looks like I will not only be buying a book next year but I also need to plan a trip to New York or Washington DC
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