Will There Be Another Garry Winogrand?

Will there be another Garry Winogrand? The answer, no. No matter how hard some eager, young, naive, film-shooting, Chinon-wielding street photographer tries, they will not become the next Garry Winogrand. This is not to say that someone can’t achieve success or fame, whatever that looks like in the no-money-world of street photography, but there will almost certainly not be another Winogrand-like rock star street photographer. Ever. There are several reasons for this opinion.

Chiefly, and perhaps most philosophically, there will not be another Winogrand, as he was a product of a specific time and place. His highly personal, idiosyncratic way of photographing, merged with the ethos of the 1960s, produced a product that by this very definition cannot be replicated. No one will wield the camera the way Garry did because no one is Garry. The 1960s “esprit des années” cannot be replicated. These are essential ingredients, without which, no Garry Winogrand can ever again take center stage. There may well be those who copy his “style” and “approach” to street photography – and even do it well – but that work will always lack an “originality” that will prevent it from achieving lasting notoriety. Perhaps Edward Weston said it best, “When subject matter is forced to fit into preconceived patterns, there can be no freshness of vision. Following rules of composition can only lead to a tedious repetition of pictorial cliches.” Cliche is, of course, the exact variety of cancer eating away at the public’s interest in street photography today.

Secondly, there cannot be another Garry Winogrand because the field of photography, especially street photography, has changed so radically as to wholly prevent us from celebrating any photographer to this extent. There is too much photography produced by too many photographers for anyone to become Winogrand-like in terms of reverence. Susan Sontag was onto something when she claimed, many years ago, that photography had become “almost as widely practiced an amusement as sex and dancing.” Indeed, street photography may well have eclipsed sex in the decades since Sontag wrote those words – at least if the scene in New York City is any indication. Interestingly, Sontag also claimed photography to be a defense against anxiety. But I digress. The point here is that there is simply too much street photography in the world. Notice my use of the word reverence above, which was intentional. I think some street photographers will undoubtedly achieve fame, but social media and the self-centered values it has unleashed will almost certainly prevent anyone from becoming as revered – loved, even – as Garry Winogrand. We do not idolize photographers in this way any longer. Mostly because we all think we too can make just as good of a photo as “the next guy.” The internet has told us so. Or, at least “most people think they can play tennis, shoot, write novels, and photograph as well as any other person – until they try.” Thank you, Peter Henry Emerson.

Lasting endurance as a truly notable figure in any artistic endeavor requires a novel contribution to that field. Put differently, you need to be different. Your work needs to contribute to a “language”, in so far as it converses with those who came before you, but it also needs to start a new conversation. Too many street photographers are simply trying to parrot the work they have seen receive praise, whether that be the work of Winogrand or others from the “golden age” of photography. No matter how skilfully copied, copy-artist work will never stand the test of time. It may, as we have seen, garner interest in the scrolls of social media, but this love-in will be brief. Those who are making unique, fresh work will inch closer to something resembling the legacy of Winogrand but, ultimately, they will fall victim to over-tired thumbs and hyper-competitive egos and fade into an abyss of ones and zeroes.

Garry Winogrand shot a millions frames of analog film in an age when most people shot a thousand at best. This tenacity combined with “freshness of vision” (most people had never seen candid photographs of strangers on sidewalks before) made Garry unique. No matter how many rolls of analog film one shoots today, they will struggle to be anything more than someone trying to copy the past. No, there will not be another Garry Winogrand.

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