Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable

Aired on PBS’s American Masters series, filmmaker Sasha Waters Freyer’s portrait of controversial art photographer Garry Winogrand (1928-1984) notes that the Bronx-born Winogrand was a student of painting who picked up a camera and never stopped clicking. From photojournalism he evolved as a widely praised "street shooter," making important impromptu images while also burning through so much celluloid film that one interviewee here says he anticipated "selfies" and the no-limit aesthete of digital media. Influenced by Robert Frank, Winogrand traveled between NYC, LA, and Texas, and his own outspoken interviews (along with a recorded conversation with fellow shutterbug Jay Maisel) outline a seemingly existential quest to make sense of life through nonstop picture-snapping. Winogrand’s work angered feminists and the political-correctness storm troops, and he ultimately fell notoriously behind in printing—or even developing—many rolls that were still in storage at his death. MOMA photography curator John Szarkowski, Winogrand’s initial champion, critically downplayed this "posthumous" work, but here revisionists praise the then-ailing, poignantly thrice-divorced photographer for still managing to produce compelling pictures that he was destined to never see. Featuring interviewees including Winogrand biographer Geoff Dyer, this engaging portrait of an unusual artist is recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)