Garry Winogrand: at a time when L.A. oozed technicolor, he found its truth in black-and-white

Interview, Oct, 2002 by Patrick Giles

New York photographer Garry Winogrand caught the reality of life in Los Angeles by taking his camera to the city's streets. Making several working trips to the city until eventually relocating there in 1978, Winogrand and his wide-angle-lensed Leica stalked the city, revealing the everyday spontaneity of a town most famous for its way with dreams.

The photograph reproduced above, from Winogrand: 1964, the name of a book from Arena Editions as well as an exhibit showing at New York City's International Center for Photography through December 9, is typical of the immediate but elusive alchemy that draws us into this artist's work. Movies full of similar reunions were made just a few miles from where Winogrand shot this photo. But this imagemaker didn't manufacture happy endings; we'll never know if one took place beyond the instant of this photograph. His pictures may share some of the zeitgeist of snapshots, but snapshots offer nostalgia: Winogrand searched for and discovered fragments of life realer than what we expect (or want) from "art photography," a torrent of private moments from truly anonymous lives crammed into a dense, bustling world too busy rushing by to notice them.

Patrick Giles is Interview's Associate Editor. Above: Garry Winogrand's Las Angeles