Wednesday, March 6, 2013

A Taste

As most people reading this surely know, the Winogrand exhibition at SFMoMA is right around the corner. The member's preview is tonight, and the show opens to the public this weekend. This promises to be a blockbuster retrospective, the first thorough re-examination of Winogrand in many years, with many historic shots. But what really has everyone's tighty whities up in a bunch is the huge number of previously unseen images about to be unveiled. For example, the following are new to me. Who knows. Maybe they were new to Winogrand too? I don't think he saw much of the stuff he shot in the 1980s.

Los Angeles, 1983
Metropolitan Opera, 1951

New York, 1960
Fort Worth, 1974-77
Los Angeles, 1964
New York, 1969

Point Mugu, 1979

Democratic Convention, 1960

Fun stuff. And that's just a taste. The exhibition features 273 photos in all. Here's the complete checklist, courtesy of my favorite anonymous tipster. Hopefully this low-res PDF will tide you over until you can see it in person. I plan a visit later this month.

13 comments:

  1. I was lucky enough to check the exhibit out this morning. It's sectioned into 3 "periods" and spread out over 5 or 6 rooms. The museum and exhibit curators also talked a bit about the editing and sequencing behind the show.

    On the placard next to each print, it says whether or not a: it was made while Windogrand was alive and b: if he had made any yes/no marks on the contact sheet the frame came from.

    Sounds like it took almost 10 years to go through 20k unseen negatives to complete the book that's coming out to compliment the retrospective.

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  2. great, i hadn't seen these photos
    thanks Blake

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  3. Thanks for the preview! Can't wait to check out the catalog they're releasing. Sarah Greenough and her team do some great work.

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  4. I wonder how the 3rd photo was left out of the book "women are beautiful"!
    The 5th is really prophetic with the kids mesmerized in front of the tv screens.
    The guy in the 6th shot is seriously pissed off with Winogrand but that didn't prevent him from taking his picture.
    No chance to see the show, looking forward for the book. Thanks for the preview Blake.

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  5. Spent an insane week with Winogrand at Imageworks in Cambridge in the early 70's. Stalking the streets, burning through Tri-X, learning how he developed by inspection with siscors in hand...it was a sight to behold. I learned that one needs to see and sense the street then see what it looked like as a photograph. Still learning today.

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  6. Checklist is awesome. Thanks Blake. Too bad no color. I hope to see it at the Met in '14.

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  7. After perusing the catalogue, those expecting a treasure trove of "brand new" Winogrand wonders will be for the most part disappointed.

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  8. I'm reserving final judgement until I can see the show in person, but based on just a quick glance I agree, Stan. Most of his best images have already been published previously.

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  9. Going through the checklist, I wasn't impressed either and in a way I was expecting not to be. This is obviously an overstretched pursuit to unearth unseen Winogrand. However it's one of the few books that I want to have for historical and collection purposes.

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  10. Is there a better photo with JFK in it?

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  11. Thanks for the taste and the PDF...much appreciated

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  12. Wow, thanks for the checklist. I find it interesting there's no color work. Did they seriously not have any in the exhibition - even some of the shots from 1964?

    @Wayne, I think there's about 5 shots of JFK here. His most famous of JFK is the first one.
    http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/04/22/magazine/winogrand-look.html?_r=0

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