Garry Winogrand: Color, on view at Brooklyn Museum through December 8
This is your last week to catch Garry Winogrand: Color at the Brooklyn Museum. The exhibit is the first devoted to the color photographs of Winogrand, who was known primarily for his black-and-white street photography.
Born in the Bronx in 1928, Winogrand pioneered a "snapshot aesthetic," according to the museum, and shot thousands of color slides from the early 1950s through the late 1960s. The artist did not have the funds to print his color slides and at the time exhibited these works in slideshows. "He found ways to use color as an artistic tool, transforming the commercial and amateur uses of the medium and producing candid pictures that pushed the limits of recognizable art photography at the time," the exhibition notes read.
More than 450 of Winogrand's color transparencies are projected onto the walls of a long darkened gallery at the Brooklyn Museum. The slides are divided into eight categories: Coney Island, 1952-1958; Early Color, 1950s; Early Color, 1960s; Portraits And Still Lifes, 1960s; On The Road, 1960s; Travel, 1960s; Women, 1960s; White Masculinity, 1960s.
Winogrand began using Kodachrome color slide film in the early 1950s. The film produced high resolution images with "brilliant and lifelike colors, and broad tonal range," according to the exhibition notes. As seen in the show, the results are captivating, richly hued images that document mid-century NYC and postwar American life—back when everybody dressed up to go about their daily lives. Winogrand's shots capture his subjects looking retro-cool and glam, especially the images presented in the "Women, 1960s" section which pre-date street style/fashion photography. It's impossible not to be drawn into each of the slideshows which offer images loaded with details evoking countless stories.
From the 50s through the 60s, Winogrand often carried two cameras—one with black-and-white film, one with color—shooting a color image immediately before or after snapping one of his iconic black-and-white photos, according to the Brooklyn Museum which is also presenting 25 of these black-and-white images culled from its collection. Winogrand passed away in 1984 at the age of 56, leaving behind a vast archive of "'unfinished' work," including 45,000 color slides and roughly 6,500 rolls of undeveloped black-and-white film.
Garry Winogrand: Color
On view May 3 through December 8
Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Prospect Heights
Learn more here.
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