The Photographer Project 2

Even though Film Photography was no longer an option, I still really enjoyed the rest of my photography class. Instead of shooting the rest of my projects with my digital camera, I choose to use my instant film cameras.

The Project to start me off with the switch from Film to Instant film was the Photographer project. We were to select a famous Photographer, study them, and photographs in their style.

I chose to do my project on Garry Winogrand, who was an American Photographer and Teacher and started photography while serving in the air force.

Garry is often most associated with the genres and styles  Street photography, documentary photography, and photojournalist photography.

Street photography mostly surrounds capturing everyday instances. Things we often overlook as special, but when photographed have a certain wonder to them. They are also a reflection of real people and society. Shots are often candid, meaning unposed and sometimes without the subject even being aware they are being photographed. It is not required to have people as the subject for a piece to be considered Street Photography.

Documentary Photography is very similar to Street photography. It too strives to catch a real-life moment or instances. A big difference between the two is Documentary Photo is more focused on a theme, where street photography is more focused on capturing an energy. Sometimes photos can be considered both, especially if the photo was taken as street photo, but because of the time, place, or event the photo is taken in becomes historically important, it may then be considered Documentary Photography.

Lastly, photojournalist photography is when one is trying to tell a story or news with photos. It was an important part of history as for a long time it was used to inform people about other cultures and societies. It was often used as a way to advocate for those who needed help or had no way to advocate for themselves. 

Winogrand’s subjects were mostly women, and he often compulsively photographed. To the point that when he passed, he still had over thousands of undeveloped and printed photos.

An example of a photo that could be classified as all three genres is V-J Day in Times Square, taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt where he caught a soldier and a women, complete strangers to each other, kiss in time square celebrating.

Winogrand’s subjects were mostly women, and he often compulsively photographed. To the point that when he passed, he still had over thousands of undeveloped and printed photos.

I think was one of the reasons I was so drawn to him as a photographer in the very beginning. I related to that compulsive need to photograph, especially when I was younger and just started out shooting with my fuji film mini. I photographed everything and saved every photo, even though most had the wrong lighting and were very blurry in the beginning.

One of the biggest challenges I faced in this project was taking in-focus images. Having to shoot without thinking, and without the person realizing that I was photographing them lead to many of my photographs being blurry.

The other issue I ran into was lack of subjects. This project took place in the height of self-isolation, which proved to make photographing people much more difficult.

I tried my best to just shoot in the moment when I got that gut instinct to take a picture. This was uncomfortable at first, as I felt bad taking images without permission, but it became easier as I went.

The other struggle I really ran into was trying to convert my photos to digital form. As the coating on the film is very shiny and the film fairly small.