Garry Winogrand Quotes

A photograph is the illusion of a literal description of how the camera 'saw' a piece of time and space.

There are no photographs while I'm reloading .

For me the true business of photography is to capture a bit of reality (whatever that is) on film ... if, later, the reality means something to someone else, so much the better.

Well, I'm not going to get into that. I think that those kind of distinctions and lists of titles like "street photographer" are so stupid. I'm a photographer, a still photographer. That's it.

Every photograph is a battle of form versus content.

The photograph should be more interesting or more beautiful than what was photographed

You know, I really don't think you learn from teachers. You learn from work. I think what you learn, really, is how to be- you have to be your own toughest critic, and you only learn that from work, from seeing work.

You're talking about meaning. I want to talk about the picture.

You have a lifetime to learn technique. But I can teach you what is more important than technique, how to see; learn that and all you have to do afterwards is press the shutter.

When I'm photographing I see life.

Photographers mistake the emotion they feel while taking the photo as a judgment that the photograph is good

Sometimes I feel like ... the world is a place I bought a ticket to. It's a big show for me, as if it wouldn't happen if I wasn't there with a camera.

You see something happening and you bang away at it. Either you get what you saw or you get something else
and whichever is better you print.

I don't know if all the women in the photographs are beautiful, but I do know that the women are beautiful in the photographs.

The primary problem is to learn to be your own toughest critic. You have to pay attention to intelligent work, and to work at the same time. You see. I mean, you've got to bounce off better work. It's matter of working.

Sometimes photographers mistake emotion for what makes a great street photograph.

There is no special way a photograph should look.

No one moment is most important. Any moment can be something.

There is nothing as mysterious as a fact clearly described. I photograph to see what something will look like photographed.

Frame in terms of what you want to have in the picture, not about making a nice picture, that anybody can do.

There are things I back off from trying to talk about, you know. Particularly my own work. Also, there may be things better left unsaid. At times I'd much rather talk about other (people's) work.

The world isn't tidy; it's a mess. I don't try to make it neat.

I have a burning desire to see what things look like photographed by me.

I photograph to see what the world looks like in photographs.

I don't have anything to say in any picture. My only interest in photography is to see what something looks like as a photograph. I have no preconceptions.