“You could say that I’m a student of photography, and I am,” said renowned photographer Garry Winogrand just before his death when asked by fellow photographer Leo Rubinfien about his lifetime of work, “but really I’m a student of America.” This is an apt description of Winogrand — one that not only encompasses the diversity seen in his wide body of work but also sums up the philosophy of the man behind the camera.
It is in honor of both the man and his photographs that the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has recently debuted an extensive Winogrand comprehensive retrospective guest-curated by Rubinfien on the life of the famous artist. What sets apart this show from all others, however, is the inclusion of more than 100 never-before-printed photos by Winogrand.
The exhibit catalogues several different periods in Winogrand’s career. Starting with the advertising work he did on the East Coast, it later moves on to his Guggenheim Grant-funded personal collections across the Midwest and in California. The show is divided into three sections. In one room you’re in 1950’s New York at a Nixon Campaign Rally or perhaps spending a late night at the Stork Club. In another room thematically titled “A Student of America,” you’re jumping from beaches to hotel swimming pools, at strip clubs and cattle auctions, touring the everyday avenues of Littleton, Colo. and Dallas, Texas. And finally, you’re in the third room, “Boom and Bust,” witnessing the final days of an artist whose inspiration was intimately tied in with the idealism of America. When the national optimism waned, so did he.
The organization of Winogrand’s prints on the walls may at first seem haphazard, but after a while, the prints present a larger thematic portrait of the photographer. Through several surprising contrasts and juxtapositions from one frame to the next, you get a sense of Winogrand’s ever-roving eye and diversity of material. During his prolific period in the 1960s, it was well established that he was in pursuit of capturing what was newly referred to as the “American Dream.”
Not too far into the exhibit, certain trends in Winogrand’s subjects begin to emerge. One thing captured his attention like no other: people in motion. Whether it’s the citizens of New York clambering to gaze into storefront windows or the slow trajectory of a solitary sailor walking down misty night streets, there is a wandering desire in Winogrand’s subjects. It is insatiable, incalculable and represents a deeply held longing for change. This transformation would come soon as the black-tie glamour of the 1950s, which gradually dissolved into the free love and civil rights struggles of the 60s.
Winogrand depicts the creatures of America as they almost leap out of their frames on the wall, burning to tell the stories behind the gleam in their eyes. As a further testament to Winogrand’s skill, his later prints seem like elegantly composed paintings, favoring the individual. Where a painter uses a brush, Winogrand uses the lights, colors and people of the world around him. There is no doubt that while in his later years he may have been less prolific, his art was still evolving.
The exhibit is not one to pass up and must be caught before it moves to its next location. His photos capture the kinetics of emotion that normally happens too quickly for the eye. Winogrand quietly freezes them for you and shows you the moments that compose a life. Whether he succeeded in finding the “American Dream” in a post-war era fueled by social revolution may never be clear. What is left behind is the evidence of a life lived through the lens of a camera.
Contact Ryan Koehn at [email protected].