Winogrand belongs to a group of early explorers of that borderland between documentary and art photography, sharing space with Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, and Diane Arbus and building on the work of Walker Evans and Weegee. Yet despite a 1988 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art and a huge influence on a younger generation of art photographers, he remains underappreciated by the general public.
Hopefully, this lavish publication, concentrating on his most important body of work, the street scenes, will begin to change that. Winogrand took the workaday street tableau and revealed there intensity and humanity as clear as in any image in a museum. The majority of the 107 photos capture New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and they now serve the purpose of a time capsule. But more than that they evoke a timeless spirit of individuals alive in the city. Highly recommended for all photography collections.
