Garry Winogrand at Rice University — Deep-Dive Lecture Notes
A structured, in-depth study guide to the 2-hour conversation. Organized for fast review and long-term study.
Overview
Core thesis: Winogrand insists that photographs are not narratives or opinions in words; they are records of what a piece of time and space looked like to a camera. The photographer’s job is to make pictures that are more dramatic (more compelling) than the thing photographed—without loading the frame with self-conscious “artiness.”
“They show you what a piece of time and space looked like to a camera.”
“The work has to be more dramatic than what was photographed.”
“I would like not to exist [in the picture].”
Table of Contents
- Context & Set-Up
- Key Themes & Arguments
- Comparative Aesthetics: Evans, Frank, Weston
- Medium Theory: Camera Seeing vs. Human Seeing
- Narrative, Ambiguity, and “Puns”
- Drama as the Bar
- Tools, Lenses, and the Way Gear Designs Your Pictures
- Practice Notes: Rodeo, Football, Access, and “Junk Action”
- Editing, Sequencing, and Being “A Good Editor”
- Teaching, Learning, and Contact Sheets
- On Other Photographers (Arbus, Sander, Avedon, FSA)
- Place: New York, Austin, LA, SF
- Selected Quotations
- Patterns in Winogrand’s Thinking
- Practical Takeaways for Your Practice
- Audience Q&A Highlights
- Study Prompts & Exercises
Context & Set-Up
- Informal talk with prints pinned around the room; meandering, blunt, funny, combative.
- No slides; work prints and seconds; conversation ricochets among history, gear, editing, ethics, and teaching.
Key Themes & Arguments
- Transparency vs. Strategy: He praises Walker Evans for a near absence of strategy—pictures where the photographer seems to get out of the way.
- Camera’s Vision: A camera doesn’t see like the eye; photography records how the camera parses space and time.
- Anti-Narrative: Photos don’t “tell stories” well; they don’t carry literary propositions.
- Ambiguity by Specificity: Good photos are specific yet can’t settle narrative facts; they function like puns.
- Drama Threshold: The photograph must exceed the inherent drama/beauty of the subject.
- Editing is Fluid: Selections are contingent—he could pick a different “top 10” every day.
- Learning from Work: Technique is simple; growth comes from doing, looking, and being your own toughest critic.
- Gear Shapes Behavior: Tools constrain/enable what you can physically do and therefore what pictures you can make.
- Distance from Subjects: He doesn’t “get to know” people while photographing; he’s not “running for mayor.”
Comparative Aesthetics: Evans, Frank, Weston
Walker Evans — “Transparent”
- Claim: Closest to no overt strategy; photographer “gets out of the way.”
- Effect: Pictures feel inevitable rather than designed.
“Evans… is as close to the absence of a strategy as I know of.”
Robert Frank — Casual Strategy
- Claim: Pictures feel like they happened; “camera operation” and attitude taught Winogrand a lot.
- Anecdote: Both photographed the same LA statue; Frank’s version “killed” Winogrand’s.
“The picture I made was made; the picture he made happened.”
Edward Weston — “Arty”
- Claim: Explicitly about making art; a self-conscious strategy that can defeat itself.
Bottom line: Arty vs. anti-arty are both strategies; Evans is exceptional for minimizing the sense of strategy while maintaining an unmistakable voice.
Medium Theory: Camera Seeing vs. Human Seeing
- Photographs ≠ Sight ≠ Language.
- Photographs present the camera’s solution to space/time—not what you “saw,” and not a sentence.
- Therefore, judging photos as if they were arguments or stories is a category error.
“You’re not a camera… You don’t see the way a camera sees.”
Narrative, Ambiguity, and “Puns”
- Photos lack narrative certainty (e.g., is she pulling her swimsuit up or down?).
- Yet they are precise about surfaces and relations.
- They work like puns: they unsettle your assumptions and then resolve into recognition/relief.
“They function like puns… They make you question what you think you know.”
Drama as the Bar
- Photographing inherently dramatic or inherently dull things: the challenge is the same—
Make a photograph that is more dramatic/interesting than the thing itself.
“How do you make a photograph that is more dramatic than what was photographed? That’s the problem.”
Tools, Lenses, and the Way Gear Designs Your Pictures
- View cameras: “Archaic” except for tilt/swing depth; if he used one, it’d be 8×10/11×14 for contacts.
- Rangefinder (Leica) vs. SLR:
- Small lenses on SLR ground glass make everything look sharp → you add focusing aids → the camera pushes you toward designed illustrations (especially with long lenses and out-of-focus blobs).
- Rangefinders are simpler, fewer moving parts, and avoid “buying mechanism” you don’t use.
“The tools you use are responsible for how the pictures look.”
“I don’t want to buy all that mechanism I don’t use.”
Working rule of thumb:
- Short lenses + rangefinder → proximity, framing freedom, minimal mechanical bias.
- Long lenses + SLR → the finder manipulates you into design.
Practice Notes: Rodeo, Football, Access, and “Junk Action”
- Access defines problem-space. From the aisle (no arena access), he took what he could get—sometimes “junk action” (i.e., not the “money” peak rodeo shots).
- With a 90mm + tele-strobe, he could engage more “real action” the next year; equipment changed the problem.
- Football at night: the event quality doesn’t guarantee better pictures—“It’s only pictures we’re getting.”
“It depends on what kind of murder you can get away with.”
Editing, Sequencing, and Being “A Good Editor”
- Selections are provisional: He could choose a different set tomorrow; don’t worship your selections.
- On Public Relations: Todd Papageorge curated; Winogrand only lets equals edit him (“inferiors” must pay a fortune).
“If I had to pick 20 today, 10 would be different tomorrow.”
“Only be edited by my equals… otherwise pay a fortune.”
Teaching, Learning, and Contact Sheets
- Technique is easy; film is forgiving; you can screw up and still print a negative.
- You learn from work, not teachers; be your own toughest critic.
- Contact sheets later reveal frames you couldn’t understand at the time—your camera outpaces your comprehension.
“You don’t learn from teachers. You learn from work.”
“The camera doesn’t know what you understand… your understanding may catch up with a frame.”
Classroom ethic: If he says something you can’t see in the picture, nail him—“If it isn’t physical, it’s rhetoric.”
On Other Photographers (Arbus, Sander, Avedon, FSA)
- Diane Arbus: Tough, self-aware; sometimes “nice” for her own needs; did very good work (and some very bad).
- August Sander vs. Richard Avedon:
- Sander: a catalogue of types (occupations/costume).
- Avedon: a more personal/human interest in individual people.
- FSA cohort: Praises Dorothea Lange and Russell Lee; thinks many others didn’t sustain first-rate work after FSA.
“Sander was making a catalog… Avedon is absolutely interested in these people as people.”
*(Note: His critique of Bruce Davidson’s *East 100th Street* is extremely harsh—he argues it reflects condescending liberal stereotypes. Summarized here without repeating harmful phrasing.)*
Place: New York, Austin, LA, SF
- Photograph where you are.
- NYC: anonymity = cover; can return to the same corner for years unseen.
- Austin: too small; “no cover.”
- LA vs. SF: LA is more interesting to him; SF feels culturally competitive with NY in a way he dislikes.
“I photograph where I am.”
Selected Quotations
“I would like not to exist.”
“Evans… is as close to the absence of a strategy as I know.”
“The picture I made was made; the picture he made happened.”
“It’s only pictures we’re getting.”
“Technique is easy… You learn from work.”
“If I had to pick 20 today, 10 would be different tomorrow.”
“Only be edited by my equals; otherwise pay a fortune.”
“If I say something you don’t see in the picture, nail me… If it isn’t physical, it’s rhetoric.”
Patterns in Winogrand’s Thinking
- Physicalism: What’s in the frame is what you can argue from. Everything else is rhetoric.
- Tool Realism: Gear is not neutral; it creates constraints that shape seeing/behavior.
- Anti-Literary Bias: Resist treating photos like essays/novels; they are not verbal arguments.
- Contingency & Fluidity: Selections/edits are time-bound decisions; be willing to change.
- Learn by Doing: Critical faculty grows from volume of work and re-seeing contact sheets.
- Self-Effacement: Strives toward transparency, minimizing the author’s “strategy” in the frame.
- Raise the Bar: The subject’s drama is not enough; the photograph must exceed it.
Practical Takeaways for Your Practice
- Shoot for transparency: Compose to reduce signs of strategy; let events register.
- Let gear fit the job:
- Rangefinder + short lenses for fluid proximity.
- SLR + long lenses when you must (sports), but stay wary of being pushed into illustration.
- Access is a variable: When blocked, change tools or vantage to change the problem.
- Edit lightly, often: Make the show/book, then move on; accept different “best” lists across time.
- Mine your contact sheets: Revisit regularly; assume your camera made pictures you couldn’t yet understand.
- Argue from the picture: In critique, demand visible evidence; avoid claims the frame can’t support.
- Set the drama bar: Ask whether the frame surpasses the subject’s inherent interest.
Audience Q&A Highlights
Q: Do you strive to be transparent?
“I’d like not to exist… In the end, all I can do is wrestle and whatever comes out.”
Q: Are Leicas archaic vs. auto SLRs?
Calls that “stupid”; with small lenses, SLRs force focusing aids and push design; prefers rangefinders’ simplicity.
Q: Why call your early rodeo frames ‘junk action’?
Relative to the arena photographers’ peak moments; his access/lens limited him—different problem, different pictures.
Q: Are photos ambiguous?
They’re specific yet can’t settle narrative facts; they work like puns, upsetting assumptions.
Q: Are you a bad editor?
“Horse****.” Also: he *defers to equals* (Papageorge) and accepts that selections shift.
Q: Teaching value?
Still interesting because he’s still learning how to talk about pictures; but learning comes from work.
Study Prompts & Exercises
- Transparency Drill: Make 12 pictures in which your presence/strategy is minimal. What choices produce that feeling?
- Drama Test: Photograph an inherently dramatic scene (parade/sport) and an inherently dull scene (parking lot). Edit to frames that surpass the scene.
- Gear Constraint Swap: Re-shoot a familiar spot with a 90mm after a week with a 28mm. Note how problems change.
- Contact Sheet Audit: Pull 3 old contact sheets. Mark frames you ignored the first time. What did your camera “know” before you did?
- Physical Evidence Critique: In group review, permit only claims visible in the frame. Ban interpretive biography.
- Edit Twice, a Week Apart: Build a 20-image sequence today; rebuild next week without looking at version one. Compare differences.
Endnotes
- These notes preserve Winogrand’s tone (direct, sometimes abrasive) while organizing ideas for study.
- Offensive/dated remarks were contextualized rather than repeated; the thrust of the critique is maintained without amplifying harmful language.