Winogrand

Street Tournament Polling wrapped up this morning and the winner is Garry Winogrand. Was there ever any doubt? Well, yes actually. Winogrand probably has as many enemies as fans, and he is as misunderstood and controversial as any street shooter. I'm sure some will be mystified that he won. To those people I would point out that nothing is as mysterious as a fact clearly described: Winogrand defeats Frank, 91-73.

Love him or hate him, Winogrand blazed an energetic trail in his own original style which is still making waves a quarter century after his death. I think he's a very deserving winner.

New York, 1965, Garry Winogrand
Thanks to everyone who voted in the tournament. It was a big experiment and I wasn't sure what to expect, but now that I have a sense of how something like this can work I plan to set up other photography polls with hopefully less predictable results. Three cheers for uncertainty...

The Finals

Fifth Round polling has closed. Garry Winogrand defeated Henri Cartier-Bresson (104 - 92), and Robert Frank defeated William Eggleston (112 - 77). Here's the bracket as of this morning:


It's interesting to compare this bracket to early predictions. Here are David Solomons' odds given May 4th, the first day of the tournament.

Winogrand: 7/2F
Eggleston: 4/1
Cartier-Bresson: 11/2
Robert Frank: 8/1
Friedlander: 15/1
Ray-Jones: 20/1
Webb: 20/1
Gilden: 20/1
Levitt: 25/1
Erwitt: 25/1
Meyerowitz: 25/1
Koudelka: 25/1
Arbus: 33/1
Parr: 50/1

He correctly picked the top four, although not in order. I would've probably guessed similarly. It was surprising to see Tony Ray-Jones especially go down so early. And, alas, Levitt.

But now we are down to two, probably the two most influential street photographers in history. It's Frank v. Winogrand for the heavyweight title.

The poll is in the right sidebar. It will be up for 10 days. I'll announce a winner June 19th.

Final Four

First of all, my apologies for not updating the blog recently. I thought I might be able to do it while traveling but it's really taken a back seat to the bare essentials: Eating, Sleeping, and Shooting.

Anyway, Fourth Round polling has closed. In somewhat of an anticlimax, all top four seeds advanced.

Frank pulled Erwitt's daisy (95-48). Cartier-Bresson decisively shot down Meyerowitz (93-52). Eggleston won the war with the obvious Kertesz (89-51). Winogrand defeated Friedlander to show us what he looked like defeated (88-57).

The fifth round is in the sidebar. Tough choices. Polling for this round ends June 8.

Elite Eight

Street Photographer Tournament Third Round polling has closed. Here are the results:

1. Garry Winogrand def. Alex Webb (133 votes - 45 votes)
2. Lee Friedlander def. William Klein (126-45)
3. Henri Cartier-Bresson def. Josef Koudelka (110-72)
4. Joel Meyerowitz def. Daido Moriyama (103-69)
5. William Eggleston def. Constantine Manos (131-40)
6. Andre Kertesz def. Diane Arbus (88-87)
7. Robert Frank def. Robert Doisneau (153-25)
8. Elliott Erwitt def. Helen Levitt (99-73)

Here's how the bracket looks this morning:



Fourth Round polling is listed in the right sidebar. Winogrand takes on Friedlander in a battle of content vs. form, it's b/w vs. color as Cartier-Bresson faces Meyerowitz, old school vs. new school in Eggleston vs. Kertesz, and finally Frank's frank lyricism challenges Erwitt's, er, wit. Who will emerge victorious?

This poll will last the normal week, ending 5/31, but due to travel plans I am not certain I'll be able to compile results in a timely fashion. Results and new polling should be posted early next week but they may take a few days so please be patient.

Sweet Sixteen

Street Photographer Tournament Second Round polling has closed. Here are the results:

1. (1) Garry Winogrand def. (8) Danny Lyon (121 votes - 11 votes)
2. (5) Alex Webb def. (4) Jacques Henri Lartigue (69-56)
3. (3) William Klein def. (11) Tom Wood (87-25)
4. (2) Lee Friedlander def. (7) Weegee (85-45)
5. (1) Henri Cartier-Bresson def. (8) Willy Ronis (108-17)
6. (4) Josef Koudelka def. (5) Rene Burri (98-21)
7. (3) Joel Meyerowitz def. (6) Saul Leiter (78-46)
8. (7) Daido Moriyama def. (2) Tony Ray-Jones (66-56)
9. (1) William Eggleston def. (9) Bruce Gilden (87-42)
10. (13) Constantine Manos def. (5) Henry Wessel (49-48)
11. (3) Andre Kertesz def. (11) Martin Parr (72-56)
12. (2) Diane Arbus def. (7) Tod Papageorge (73-55)
13. (1) Robert Frank def. (9) Bill Brandt (112-14)
14. (4) Robert Doisneau def. (5) Marc Riboud (69-47)
15. (3) Elliott Erwitt def. (6) Brassai (84-36)
16. (2) Helen Levitt def. (7) Roy DeCarava (95-21)

This past week's competition was a bit painful for me to follow, as I watched several personal favorites including Tom Wood, Tony Ray-Jones, and Henry Wessel go down in flames. Oh well. Here is the updated bracket as of this morning.


This is where things begin to get interesting, as some heavy hitters are paired against each other. For this round I've decided to eliminate seeding information from the pairings. Originally it was a carryover from March Madness, but I've come to think it isn't very useful and actually may have influenced voting patterns, which was not the intent. If you want to see the original seeding you can refer to the bracket, but otherwise you're on your own.

In raw numbers, voting dropped off during week two. E.g., Garry Winogrand got 215 votes in round one, but needed only 121 votes to win the second round handily. I'm not sure why there was a decrease. The internet likes new things, and maybe the poll has already become yesterday's story? Maybe it's the lack of advertising? In any case the good news for participants is that with less people voting, every vote now carries more weight.

Third Round polling is listed in the right sidebar. Sixty-four began. Sixteen remain. Who will survive another week? This round concludes Sunday, 5/23 at midnight PDT.

Round Two

Street Photographer Tournament First Round polling has closed. Here are the results:

1.(2) Lee Friedlander def. (15) Max Yavno (214 votes -16 votes)
2. (7) Weegee def. (10) Ralph Gibson (187-43)
3. (3) William Klein def. (14) Charles Traub (156-30)
4. (11) Tom Wood def. (6) Erich Salomon (80-56)
5. (4) J-H Lartigue def. (13) George Krause (153-35)
6. (5) Alex Webb def. (12) Mark Cohen (125-64)
7. (8) Danny Lyon def. (9) Mario Giacomelli (83-78)
8. (1) Garry Winogrand def. (16) Bruno Barbey (215-16)
9. (2) Tony-Ray-Jones def. (15) David Hurn 116-37)
10. (7) Daido Moriyama def. (10) Ray Metzker (118-64)
11. (3) Joel Meyerowitz def. (14) Fred Herzog (178-30)
12. (6) Saul Leiter def. (11) Carl de Keyzer (110-52)
13. (4) Josef Koudelka def. (13) Richard Kalvar (151-46)
14. (5) Rene Burri def. (12) Raymond Depardon (81-63)
15. (8) Willy Ronis def. (9) Alfred Eisenstaedt (87-73)
16. (1) Cartier-Bresson def. (16) Luigi Ghirri (194-26)
17. (2) Diane Arbus def. (15) Charles Harbutt (169-42)
18. (7) Tod Papageorge def. (10) Gilles Peress (96-71)
19. (3) Andre Kertesz def. (14) Mitch Epstein (123-63)
20. (11) Martin Parr def. (6) Bruce Davidson (104-103)
21. (13) Constantine Manos def. (4) Raghubir Singh (76-67)
22. (5) Henry Wessel def. (12) Louis Stettner (80-52)
23. (9) Bruce Gilden def. (8) Lisette Model (117-65)
24. (1) William Eggleston def. (16) Bill Dane (187-13)
25. (2) Helen Levitt def. (15) Vivian Maier (107-32)
26. (10) Roy DeCarava def. (7) Leonard Freed (83-53)
27. (3) Elliott Erwitt def. (14) Thomas Roma (160-26)
28. (6) Brassai def. (11) Louis Faurer (124-47)
29. (4) Robert Doisneau def. (13) Jeff Mermelstein (93-92)
30. (5) Marc Riboud def. (12) Sylvia Plachy (97-45)
31. (9) Bill Brandt def. (8) Edouard Boubat (110-49)
32. (1) Robert Frank def. (16) Burk Uzzle (197-4)

A few upsets, a few very close races, and half the photographers eliminated. Here is how the bracket looks this morning.


Second round pairings are listed in the right sidebar, featuring several intriguing matchups. Webb v. Lartigue? Weegee v. Friedlander? Ray-Jones v. Moriyama? Doisneau v. Riboud? As with last time, there are also some brutal death-traps. Er, sorry about that Lyon and Ronis. Should be interesting to follow.

Have fun voting. Polls conclude Sunday, 5/16 at midnight PDT.

Tourney blooper

Someone has alertly pointed out a mistake in the street photo tourney. Charles Traub appears twice, in polls #3 and #25. That was sloppy editing on my part. Unfortunately I can't change the poll once voting has begun. I've removed #25. I'd like to post a new matchup for Levitt. If you know of a photographer missing here that you think belongs, this is your chance. Write it in the comments. Anyone with multiple nominations will be considered to replace Traub at #25.

Addendum 5/4/10: Based on David Solomons' suggestion, I'm inserting Vivian Maier in poll #25 as a wildcard. Maybe it's premature to declare her an alltime great, but it will be fun to give her a shot. If you already voted in that poll you'll need to revote.

Street Photographer tournament

This spring Tyler Green conducted an interesting experiment on Modern Art Notes. He chose 32 nominees for Greatest Living American Abstract Painter, set them up in a tournament bracket, and determined the winners through a public online voting process. Timed to coincide with the NCAA's college basketball tournament, the contest was a mix of March Madness and American Idol, with a heavy dose of High Art thrown in. The winner was Cy Twombly.

I've decided to set up a similar tournament for Street Photography. I've chosen 64 of the best Street Photographers in history, seeded them, and designed a tournament bracket.



Please take a minute to look at it. If you want to play along as we go, you can print this bracket out today, fill in your selections, and see how many winners you've picked six weeks from now.

A disclaimer about the bracket: These are my selections. They are not scientific. The guiding principle I used for inclusion was to ask myself, "If you put this person at the peak of their street career on 5th Avenue in New York for twenty minutes, who would return with the best, most streety, most serendipitous shot?" I generally gave more weight to historically influential photographers, which means you won't find many current shooters on the list. I gave weight to small-format, candid, unplanned shooters, which I consider the heart of street photography. The main exception is Arbus, whom I just couldn't leave out. I gave zero weight to documentary or photojournalist shooting which is why you won't find, e.g., Eugene Smith or Capa in the bracket.

I know many people will disagree with my names and seedings. I don't want to get bogged down in arguments about who should or shouldn't be where in the bracket. All I can say is I've put some careful thought into designing it, and hopefully you can accept that and play along.

The way the tournament will work is every Monday I will post one round of matchups in the sidebar to the right. You'll have one week to vote using the buttons in the sidebar. When considering how to vote, I'd encourage you to use criteria similar to my own ("5th Avenue...") but of course you're welcome to vote however you want.

On Sunday evenings I will tabulate results, and then post new matchups every Monday. The first round is fairly massive, with 32 matchups. But it will get simpler, as each round will eliminate half the photographers. The tournament will last six weeks. We should have a winner by Mid-June.

Please spread the word about this tournament to anyone in the street photography community who may be interested. The more participants the better. Have fun voting.