The following exchange captures the essence of Winograndian thought.
Q= Unidentified Moderator
W= Winogrand
Q: What about the reoccurrence of, say, oh, monkeys, which goes back-
W: Listen, it's interesting; but it's interesting for photographic reasons, really-
Q: What are photographic reasons?
W: Basically, I mean, ah-well, let's say that for me anyway when a photograph is interesting, it's interesting because of the kind of photographic problem it states-which has to do with the...contest between content and form. And, you know, in terms of content, you can make a problem for yourself, I mean, make the contest difficult, let's say, with certain subject matter that is inherently dramatic. An injury could be, a dwarf can be, a monkey-if you run into a monkey in some idiot context, automatically you've got a very real problem taking place in the photograph. I mean, how do you beat it?
Q: Are you saying then that your primary concern is a kind of formal one?
W: Of course.
Also, you can find a fascinating video interview between Winogrand and Bill Moyers from 1982, here.
Central Park Zoo, New York City, 1964
Image © Garry Winogrand
