The Gary Winogrand Exhibit

I felt the Gary Winogrand exhibit was one of those things you don’t really think about until someone puts the idea right in front of you. I’ve walked around New York City and have obviously seen a menagerie of people go about their daily lives. I’ve even wondered who this people are and what they;re doing in their day, but theres something different and kind of eerie with capturing that moment on film like Winogrand does. The first photograph I saw as one of a young woman the artist took without her knowing and unexpectedly. I got kind of a peeping-tom/ paparazzi type vibe from the exhibit at first because that’s what it was for me, little private glimpses into an unknowing person’s life, but that is what I think what was trying to be captured in these pictures. I generally liked the exhibit because it wasn’t staged, it was pure human existence which is one of the most complex, beautiful, and ugly things I feel we will ever experience in life.

After looking at some pictures I stated watching the people watching the pictures. Most were really  enthralled and deeply observing the photos and I overheard this one conversation. What looked like a mother and daughter. The mother was explaining one picture to the girl who had to be around 14 or 15 about the “juxtaposition of  the men in the air force and the plain where they are where stationed in with their families watching them go” The woman was clearly very into the gallery and was explaining to her daughter the “creepiness” of the air force and how Winogrand was trying to make a statement about the war in this image. After this very insightful and very passionate explanation of this picture her daughter just looks up at her with a completely teenage look on her face and goes “What’s so creepy about the air force?” Which to me this exchange  shows exactly what the photos themselves were trying to show, the different degrees of human emotion, life,and perspective in one singular place.