Garry Winogrand: The Godfather of Street Photography Essay

Taking photographs may seem simple, but being a photographer is more than browsing through the viewfinder and pushing the exposure button. A photographer needs to know how to analyze the scene, speak in words that language cannot, and reach to the souls of people through a picture. During the Great Depression, many photographers captured the scenes of poverty and grief. However, there was only one photographer that truly captured the souls of Americans. According to Roy Stryker, Dorothea Lange "had the most sensitivity and the most rapport with people" (Stryker and Wood 41). Dorothea Lange was a phenomenal photographer that seized the hearts of people during the 1930s and beyond, and greatly affected the times of the Great Depression.

Winogrand took photos of everything he saw; he always carried a camera or two, loaded and prepared to go. He sought after to make his photographs more interesting than no matter what he photographed. Contrasting many well-known photographers, he never knew what his photographs would be like he photographed in order to see what the things that interested him looked like as photographs. His photographs resemble snapshots; street scenes, parties, the zoo. A critical artistic difference between Winogrand's work and snapshots has been described this way, the snapshooter thought he knew what the subject was in advance, and for Winogrand, photography was the process of discovering it. If we recall tourist photographic practice, the difference becomes clear: tourists know in advance what photographs of the Kodak Hula Show will look like. In comparison, Winogrand fashioned photographs of subjects that no one had thought of photographing. Again and again his subjects were unconscious of his camera or indifferent to it. Winogrand was a foremost figure in post-war photography, yet his pictures often appear as if they are captured by chance. To him and other photographers in the 1950s, the previous pictures seemed planned, designed, visualized, understood in advance; they were little more than pictures, in actual fact less, because they claimed to be somewhat else the examination of real life. In this sense, the work of Garry Winogrand makes a motivating comparison to Ziller's

For this essay the works of Robert Draper, author of “Why Photos Matter,” and Fred Ritchen, author of “Photography Changes the Way News is Reported,” will be analyzed. Though both deal with the topic of photography, their take on the matter is very different. While Ritchen is a photographer who writes on “what professional photographers will be doing in the future,” Draper is a writer for the National Geographic writing on how the photographers of the magazine share “a hunger for the unknown.” Both writers, however, write on the topic of photographers having a deeper understanding of their subjects, Ritchen due to research and practice, and Draper because the photographers “sit [with] their subjects, just listening to them.” In both essays the need for a deeper understanding of the

The first thing I will write about is a person, Jacob Riis. A esteemed author of the book “How the other half Lives”, published in the 1890s. Riis was a pioneer in the time when photography was first starting to catch on. In Riis’s photos he took pictures of people who lived in the slums of the major cities and how they lived. He was termed a Muckraker by our late president Theodore Roosevelt, because journalists like him would, as he would say, rake through all the good things and bad on the ground and only report the bad of the world. But Riis was one of the men of his era

The paper will explore Abelardo Morell’s life, photographic career, and discusses how the Camera falls into his career. Also, this paper will include an art critic review of his artworks. Abelardo Morell is a renowned Cuban-born photographer in the field of Contemporary photography, known for his invention working methods, including the use of a Camera Obscura that represented by Edwynn Houk Gallery in New York City. He took the Camera Obscura out of the past and bring it toward the future. This paper hopes to give a reader an understanding of Abelardo Morell and Camera Obscura.

Not simply a great photographer and ethnographer but a man with enough compassion and foresight to recognize that here was a once proud and free people whose traditions and culture were quickly disappearing via assimilation into a conquering white man’s society. His passion and drive to capture those traditions is reflected in this quote:

As New York photographer James Maher quoted from A World History of Photography, “photographs used in campaigns for social reform not only provided truthful evidence but embodied a commitment to humanistic ideals” (361). Moreover, as shown in the article Documenting the Social Scene, the powerful photography that Hine and Riis have captured of immigrants encapsulate the need for change; furthering the separation of their photojournalism from illustrative and recreational art. From Hine documenting much of the practices of child labor, to Riis exposing the harsh living conditions of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, (Maher) both photographers comply to a code of ethics and sense of journalistic integrity— Riis and Hine showcase the truth behind the photos in a way that attempts to humanize the subjects on film as much as it attempts to engage a moral debate of the situations at hand. In addition, to exemplify the impact of photojournalism, we must consider the perspective of the Gilded Age

Before starting this project, I knew very little about photography, photographers, or exactly how much impact photographical images have had on our society. I have never taken a photography class, or researched too in depth about specific pictures or photographers. This project has allowed me to delve deeper into the world of photography in order to understand just how much influence pictures can have over society’s beliefs, emotions, and understandings’. I have have chosen two highly influential photographers, Diane Arbus and Dorothea Lange, who I have found to both resonate with me and perfectly capture human emotions in way that moves others.

The American photographer, Clarence John Laughlin, was best known for his surrealist photographs in the southern parts of the United States. Laughlin was born near Lake Charles, Louisiana in 1905 and died on January 2, 1985. Laughlin’s in the middle social class with a rocky childhood. Clarence’s southern ancestry peaked his interest in literature which helped influence his work greatly. His family owned a rice farm, but unfortunately it failed and his family lost everything and were forced to relocate in New Orleans. Laughlin had a close relationship with his father until he got a new job at a factory. His father encouraged Clarence his love for literature and

West of the Imagination is a collection of fascinating tales of western artists from Charles Willson Peale to Georgia O’Keeffe. Furthermore, it covers various art forms from painting to photography to sculpture to illustration and to theatrical production. This book also explores comparisons between such artists as the man who “made a momentous decision to become the latter-day George Catlin and record the “vanishing American” or “fallen foe” for posterity. This man was Edward Sheriff Curtis, a Seattle society photographer.” The authors are amply knowledgeable on the subject of life and art in the west as well as how the West is a enduring concept. The content is clear enough for the general public, but more appreciated by experts who have a background in western art and history. Specific names, locations, and events referenced, imply the reader should be knowledgeable of the context and historical significance of American history. Likewise, Robert Thacker, a book reviewer from St. Lawrence University, boldly stated that “This is in every meaning of the word a wonderful book.” Thacker expresses later that “The authoritative tone belies a wealth of information, for the authors make their analysis seem easy

As photography was being used more and more as a method of documentation, they were among the first to use it to push social reform efforts. They closely documented the devastating effects of industrialization and urbanization on the working-class American. Through their work they brought attention to the need for housing and (child) labor laws. They used their medium to bring real proof to the public and legislators, where it needed to be seen. Actually, instead of documentary photography, it may best be called social reform photography, as they both worked tirelessly and used the medium to force attention and to effect social change.

The photograph is a very powerful medium. The French painter Paul Delaroche exclaimed upon seeing an early photograph “from now on, painting is dead!” (Sayre, 2000). Many critics did not take photography seriously as a legitimate art form until the 20th century. With the

For some, a picture is just a beautiful work of art, but for Lewis Hine photography was a way to communicate a message to the world. When Hine was taught the photographic process, it was still being established. This being said, photojournalism was also just evolving as a method to visually communicate information. In an effort to better his photography skills, Hine began to photograph the immigrants of Ellis Island. He was very adamant about social reform and reflected this in his work. Lewis Hine’s captivating photos inspired social change in America for the less fortunate.

One of his most famous, and well-known bodies of work that was very representative of his style of photography was the series of photos known as “Women are beautiful”. His primary concern with the series was to show not only the beauty of women in situations where beauty was expected or common, but also within the average life of independent women of the era, the latter is displayed very well in the photo Bag Lady. This photo contains a women making her way down the street in casual clothing carrying some personal belongings, her intention is not posing, or conveying her beauty, she is simply going through her day to day life, and Garry’s message is to communicate her beauty. The message with the entire body of work is the simplistic message that all women are beautiful whether in formal attire (Centennial Ball), or in casual life (Lots of

Henry Peach Robinson, born on July 9th, 1830, was a British photographer and prominent author on photography. Known as “the King of Photographic Picture Making,” he began his life’s work as a painter but would become one of the most influential photographers of the late 19th century. He was a prolific advocate for photography as an art form and is well known for his role in “pictorialism,” which, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, is “an approach to photography that emphasizes beauty of subject matter, tonality, and composition rather than the documentation of reality.”