Garry Winogrand

Attending the Metropolitan Museum of Art is always a great time.  However, I found myself captured (all puns intended!!) by his work in more ways that I would have thought.  I hadn’t really looked into, or learned much, about the art of photography before going to the collection; which, in my opinion, was nice to experience it purely from a personal lever; as opposed to an academic level.

First off, I have to say I loved his work.  It may have been the simplicity of what was on the outside but it was really moving.  I really loved how he captured everyday people doing just everyday things and making a whole other reality out of it.  My favorites had to be the ones where men and women, old and young, were all at some sort of party, I believe they were all part of the same collection.  Every picture told its own story of each guest at the party and their state of being.  Some shots were of the same people just the next moment after the first one.  It was its own little story picture book.  Like many of his photos, you could easily tell how people were feeling or what they doing.

One thing that really stood out to me was a few of his pictures didn’t have a focus at times.  For example, there would be pictures of a large group of people, but also a very scenic background.  This is very different from a painting which has a focus or a sculpture that usually, again has a main focus.  I would assume that photography works the same, but I saw so many smaller focuses.  It added a certain intimacy to the people and places in the photos.  Another one that I really loved was of a very young, beautiful, (I think blonde) woman lighting a cigarette.  It looked like she noticed she was being photographed but she also looked surprised, as if, she didn’t request to be photographed.  You could see the surprised, yet happy and flattered, look on her face.  It seemed so natural.

After leaving the museum and reflecting on that specific picture, the idea of its natural being resonated with me.  And I feel that photography, or at least Garry Winogrand’s work, is the most natural art form.  Most art, if not all, is imitation; imitation of the world we live in and all aspects of it.  But photography is a still frame in time showing us our reality.  Its literally the world we live in, frozen for us the reflect on.  It does not get any more natural or real than his collection of work.  I simply loved it and recommend it to anyone even slightly interested in art!