|
Street Photography Special: Book Review
Man In The Crowd
The Uneasy Streets of Garry Winogrand
Reviewed by Mason Resnick
To Garry Winogrand, the street was a stage and he was the theatrical photographer. Published in tandem with a retrospective of his street photography, Man In The Crowd cuts to the core of Winogrand's work.
During his lifetime, Winogrand worked prolifically and produced a handful of influential, if controversial books: The Animals (photographs taken at Zoos), Women Are Beautiful, Public Relations and Stock Photographs. These book would influence a generation of photographers. However, each of his previous publications had baggage attached: with Women Are Beautiful, he was accused of being a male chauvanist pig by some critics. One accused him of "shooting from the crotch." Public Relations concentrated on art gallery and museum openings, politics and other controlled events. Stock Photographs were a subjective look at a rodeo and cattle show in Texas. And the book published after his death, Figments from the Real World, caught the world's attention by showing some of the thousands of images Winogrand shot in the years right before he died and never saw himself. The whole "would he have chosen these images" game took something away from the impact of his life's work. The Man In The Crowd is the only book of Winogrand photos that consists exclusively of Winogrand's street pictures. At least 50 of the images have never been published before.
In his introduction, Jeffrey Fraenkel, the owner of the gallery that housed the accompanying exhibit, offers a surprising context. "An odd thing is happeining to these photographs, right before our eyes," he writes in his introduction. "They are becoming historical...describing in a persuasive manner the feeling of their times." Indeed, the historical aspect is becoming an interesting side effect of these photographs. They certainly document, in a most unusual way, the clothes, the activities and controversies of the times in which they were made. But the main impact they have is in how they bust through preconceptions of how a photograph should be made.
Those who are familiar with Winogrand's work will not be dissapointed: there are plenty of previously unpublished images here. If you have only heard the names but haven't seen the work, this book offers an excellent overview of his street photography. The only possible negative is that the reproduction quality leaves something to be desired--shadow detail is muddy in some images, which is a shame. However, this should not prevent one from purchasing this historically important document of a photographer who deserved more respect than he got.
About the author: Mason Resnick would not have founded Black and White World if he hadn't taken a two-week workshop with Garry Winogrand in 1976. Email Mason at bwworld@mindspring.com.