Peter Schjeldahl, in his “Exposed,” in this week’s issue, refers to “photography’s artificiality” (“Winogrand was as fully and dramatically cognizant of photography’s artificiality as, say, Cindy Sherman, but he assumed a right to be judged strictly on the quality of his work”). The aspect of photography that I admire most is its factuality. Does the camera lie? Yes, but only when the photographer controlling the camera wants it to. Such a photographer is Jeff Wall, who stages many of his pictures. I’m allergic to his work. Garry Winogrand, on the other hand, is among photography’s most factual, least artificial artists. Even the skewed look of his images is born not of willed distortion, but of avidity to capture ever more within his picture frame. Schjeldahl writes:
You see the comprehensive capture of scenes on the wing. If the camera tilts, it’s not for arty effect but to squeeze in the relevant details of, say, a group of women bustling forward between a beggar in a wheelchair and a small group of people standing or sitting at a curb—three rhythms in flashing counterpoint.
That “comprehensive capture of scenes on the wing” beautifully describes Winogrand’s art.
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