Garry Winogrand was an American photographer born in 1928 in New York City. He found interest in photography while serving in the military and later pursued painting at City College and Columbia University. Winogrand’s unposed, spontaneous images of people in public engaged in everyday life made him highly influential for his street photography documenting the social and cultural landscape of mid-century metropolitan United States.
His work was featured in several exhibitions, including Edward Steichen’s groundbreaking “The Family of Man” at MoMA, one of the largest photographic shows ever assembled which traveled internationally. Photographs by Winogrand were also included in ‘New Documents,’ another important exhibition organized by John Szarkowski that explored a new kind of subject matter: snapshots taken on the street or other vernacular compositions that didn’t neatly fit into traditional categories of art photography.
Winogrand’s style was characterized by capturing the visual cacophony of city streets, people, rodeos, airports, and animals in zoos. His photographs were often crowded with subjects caught mid-motion or awkward action that gave them remarkable energy. As Szarkowski noted,’in the world he photographed things overpopulate; they boil up like a witch’s cauldron.’
Winogrand is widely regarded as a central photographer of his generation – one who pushed boundaries and influenced many photographers to follow him. Despite passing away suddenly at age 56 during surgery for cancer-like tumors on his brain, he left behind a vast archive of images that continues to inspire artists today.