The photo is a thing in itself. And that's what still photography is all about.
Garry WinograndRead
The photograph should be more interesting or more beautiful than what was photographed
Interpretation
A photograph should capture something that enhances the viewer's experience beyond reality.
Garry Winogrand's quote emphasizes the idea that photography is not just about replicating reality, but about creating a vision or interpretation that resonates with beauty or intrigue. It suggests that an effective photograph goes beyond mere representation, evoking emotions or thoughts that make it more compelling than the actual subject being captured.
In practice
When discussing the impact of photography in a gallery talk.
The photo is a thing in itself. And that's what still photography is all about.
Photography is about finding out what can happen in the frame. When you put four edges around some facts, you change those facts.
When Iβm photographing I see life.
Photography is not about the thing photographed. It is about how that thing looks photographed.
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 it as it is. A photograph must be responsible to both.
You have a lifetime to learn technique. But I can teach you what is more important than technique, how to see; learn that and all you have to do afterwards is press the shutter.
I haven't changed my mind about modernism from the first day I ever did it... It means integrity; it means honesty; it means the absence of sentimentality and the absence of nostalgia; it means simplicity; it means clarity. That's what modernism means to me.
I bid the chords sweet music make, And all must follow in my wake.
I may play the same program from one recital to the next, but I will play it differently, and because it is always different, it is always new.
This is the light of the mind, cold and planetary. The trees of the mind are black. The light is blue.
Without touching my subject I want to come to the moment when, through pure concentration of seeing, the composed picture becomes more made than taken. Without a descriptive caption to justify its existence, it will speak for itself - less descriptive, more creative; less informative, more suggestive - less prose, more poetry.
I love to take actors to a place where they open a vein. Thatβs the job. The key is that I make it safe for them to open the vein.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.