A work of art is that thing whose form and content
are organic to the tools and materials that made it.
Still photography is a chemical, mechanical process.
Literal description or the illusion of literal
description, is what the tools and materials of still
photography do better than any other graphic medium.
A still photograph is the illusion of a literal
description of how a camera saw a piece of time and
space. Understanding this, one can postulate the
following theorem:
Therefore, a photograph can look any way.
I like to think of photographing as a two-way act of
respect. Respect for the medium, by letting it do
what it does best, describe. And respect for the
subject, by describing as it is. A photograph must be
responsible to both.
Garry Winogrand
Some posts about Winogrand
mostly by people who knew him
Review
of Figments from the Real World
What I write here is a description of what I have
come to understand about photography, from
photographing and from looking at photographs.
Anything and all things are photographable.
A photograph can only look like how the camera saw
what was photographed. Or, how the camera saw the
piece of time and space is responsible for how the
photograph looks.
Or,
there's
no way a photograph has to look (beyond being an
illusion of a literal description). Or, there are no
external or abstract or preconceived rules of design
that can apply to still photographs.
Austin, Texas 1974