The Garry Winograd Exhibit

Although I love to take pictures and think of some as really “cool”, I don’t usually find photography as art. However, as I walked around the Garry Winograd exhibit (the first photography exhibit I have ever been to) I started to realize that I actually can appreciate the photographs as works of art more than I usually would have. I’m pretty sure it has to do with my change in perspective of art in general. I’ve always appreciated art even though I didn’t know how to analyze artwork. Thanks to the night at the Brooklyn Museum, I am now able to appreciate all different kinds of art much better than I used to because I am confident in myself as I now analyze the art work.

Anyway, as I looked around there were a few photographs that really caught my eye. One was of a man in mid air upside down. At first I immediately thought of “the Falling Man” of 9/11. The position that the man was in reminded me right away of the position the man that was falling from the World Trade Center was in. It wasn’t exactly the same but it still made me think of that. So, naturally, I got closer to the photograph so I could look at it a little longer. That’s when I realized that it must be a stunt, or trick of some sort. There was another man, standing on the side, with a huge smile on his face. He looked very amused. I first got a sense of morbidness from the artwork but than realized that it’s actually a fun and playful scene. (I was also confused at the beginning considering 9/11 happened years later.)

Another photograph that I was intrigued by was one of a big crowd of girls behind street barriers. They were all looking in the same direction and screaming for or because of something. There was a man on the side that was looking in the same direction as all the girls were, but his face looked confused or worried, I’m not really sure. Then I noticed one of the girls was wearing a shirt that said “the Beatles.” That’s when I understood what was happening. It all made sense to me now! I was then laughing to myself as I looked at the photograph again with a new perspective.

I think if Garry Winograd would have put more explanatory titles for his photographs it wouldn’t have been as much of a fun investigation as it was for me. I liked that I had to figure out what was happening in the photographs as oppose to being told by the title. He could have written “Beatlemania” for the photograph of all the girls screaming, but that would have given it away. I thought it was a nice experience for me to see the art in photographs that are not of beautiful, grand landscape scenes.