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S33 Ep6

Garry Winogrand: All Things are Photographable

Premiere: 4/19/2019 | 00:01:58 |

Discover the life and work of Garry Winogrand, the epic storyteller in pictures who harnessed the serendipity of the streets to capture the American 1960s-70s. His “snapshot aesthetic” is now the universal language of contemporary image making.

About the Episode

Decades before digital technology transformed how we make and see pictures, Garry Winogrand made over 1 million of them with his 35mm Leica camera, creating an encyclopedic portrait of America from the late 1950s to the early 1980s in the process. When he died suddenly at age 56, Winogrand left behind more than 10,000 rolls of film – more than a quarter of a million pictures. These images capture a bygone era: the New York of Mad Men, the early years of the Women’s Movement, the birth of American suburbs and the glamour and alienation of Hollywood. He produced so many unseen images that it has taken until now for the full measure of his artistic legacy to emerge. Garry Winogrand: All Things are Photographable is the first cinematic survey of that legacy. With unprecedented access to Winogrand’s estate and the cooperation of his gallery, the film tells the story of an artist whose rise and fall was – like America’s in the late decades of the 20th century – larger-than-life, full of contradictions and totally unresolved.

In addition to hundreds of iconic photographs, filmmaker Sasha Waters Freyer makes ample use of Winogrand’s previously unseen 8mm color home movies of his parents, three wives and children, plus the wealth of footage created as he roamed city streets and attended 1960s protests. The film also features newly discovered audio cassette tapes of Winogrand, which are the only un-staged media of the artist in existence. These cassette tapes capture conversations with an old friend, recorded in a forgotten Texas diner, about ex-wives, parents, children, sex, students, and the meaning and making of art. Following his first solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1969, Winogrand’s work has since been exhibited at museums and galleries across the country and around the world.  Through his own words and images, Garry Winogrand: All Things are Photographable presents an intimate portrait of a man who both personified his era and transformed it.

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PRODUCTION CREDITS

Garry Winogrand: All Things are Photographable is produced, directed and edited by Sasha Waters Freyer. Executive Producers are David Koh, Alice Koh, and Dan Braun. Eddie Marritz is the Director of Photography. Original music is by Ethan Winogrand. Animation is by Kelly Gallagher. Michael Kantor is American Masters series executive producer.

About American Masters
Now in its 37th season on PBS, American Masters illuminates the lives and creative journeys of those who have left an indelible impression on our cultural landscape—through compelling, unvarnished stories. Setting the standard for documentary film profiles, the series has earned widespread critical acclaim: 28 Emmy Awards—including 10 for Outstanding Non-Fiction Series and five for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special—two News & Documentary Emmys, 14 Peabodys, three Grammys, two Producers Guild Awards, an Oscar, and many other honors. To further explore the lives and works of more than 250 masters past and present, the American Masters website offers full episodes, film outtakes, filmmaker interviews, the podcast American Masters: Creative Spark, educational resources, digital original series and more. The series is a production of The WNET Group.

American Masters is available for streaming concurrent with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS App, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. PBS station members can view many series, documentaries and specials via PBS Passport. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website.

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UNDERWRITING

Support for Garry Winogrand: All Things are Photographable is provided by Derek Freese Film Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Support for American Masters is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AARP, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, Judith and Burton Resnick, Seton J. Melvin, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, The Ambrose Monell Foundation, Lillian Goldman Programming Endowment, Vital Projects Fund, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, Ellen and James S. Marcus, The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation, Koo and Patricia Yuen, Thea Petschek Iervolino Foundation, The Marc Haas Foundation and public television viewers.

TRANSCRIPT

(banjo strumming) - [Man] Garry Winogrand was one of the principal American photographers of his generation.

He was a true poet of photography, a true poet of American life.

- [Man] He took this genre of so-called street photography, and turned it on its head and made it something new.

- [Man] This guy shot over a million photographs in his lifetime, which is absolutely phenomenal when you stop and think about that.

- [Man] Winogrand was controversial in his time, and even remains so.

- [Woman] One of the things that's always really fascinated me about him is that he died with thousands of rolls of undeveloped film.

What could that be?

- [Man] Famously there's a lot of nothing.

There's a lot of pictures of nothing.

But I discovered things in that nothing that people didn't know and still don't know.

(inspiring music) - [Garry] No, no all kidding aside.

I would like not to exist.

Do I make sense to you at all?

In the end all I can do is wrestle and whatever comes out that's the way I have to express it.

I would like not to exist.

I'm not speaking in mysteries, and I'm not talking about suicide or anything, I'd just assume not exist.

(inspiring music)

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