Category: Women of New York

I’m guilty of photographing New Yorkers all day long as they are, and rarely have asked for permission. Recently a woman in San Francisco visited the new Garry Winogrand exhibit and was left feeling that Garry had crossed “many lines” and was in need of a reprimand 29 years after his untimely death. A fairly well known photo critic agreed with her and would like street photographers to explain themselves and that’s fine. If one likes portraits, then by all means, explain away. The truth is that I occasionally operate too aggressively, and come off poorly when out and about with my camera. I have been yelled at and threatened too many times to count and I understand both sides of this argument better than most. I don’t need to bring up how important “Street Photography” is to the history books in terms of recording modern life, which is constantly in flux. Many others have already belabored this point. It really comes down to how important is art, and is it worth pissing someone off to achieve it on a very rare basis. Everyone who practices or even enjoys street photography knows that 99% of it is not going to qualify as a total success. That a really great picture is so hard (Almost impossible) to achieve, is what makes the art of street photography such a challenge, and also so rewarding.

I have upset way too many people to totally disregard the arguments for more civility and better manners. I just find portraits boring 90% of the time. I don’t own any books by Richard Avedon, while I own every single book published of Garry’s work…

To each his own.