Garry Winogrand's Photography Retrospective Brings 250,000 Unknown Images To SFMOMA (PHOTOS)

When street photographer Garry Winogrand passed away unexpectedly at 56 years old, he left behind approximately 250,000 images he'd never even seen. Because the extremely prolific photographer delayed editing his images, his oeuvre remained largely unexamined for years. For his first retrospective in 25 years, SFMOMA will present 300 photographs from the American icon, over 100 of which have never before been printed.

SFMOMA's assistant curator of photography Erin O'Toole explained in a statement:

"In the absence of explicit instructions from him regarding how he wanted his work to be handled after he was gone, its posthumous treatment has been the subject of ongoing debate and raises provocative questions about the creative process and its relationship to issues specific to the medium."

Winogrand, born in the Bronx in 1928, studied painting before turning to photography. The state of photography in America was somewhere between a budding artistic medium and journalistic technique, and Winogrand expressed American truths with a poetic eye. Whether capturing the overcrowded, amorphous New York streets or a lone sailor hitchhiking on the highway, Winogrand possessed an eye for that funny sense of isolation that lies beneath the American way.

With visual puns, odd personas and absurd juxtapositions, Winogrand turns ordinary American moments into extraordinary photographs. The photography addict insisted that "photography is not about the thing photographed. It is about how that thing looks photographed," an adage which proves true in his retrospective.

Whether in his native New York or Miami, Los Angeles, Albuquerque or Dallas, whether capturing clowns, construction workers, airports or beautiful women... Winogrand captured the complex fabric of American life, somewhere between ugliness and beauty.

Garry Winogrand will show at SFMOMA from March 9 until June 2, 2013 before travelling to Washington, D.C., New York, Paris, and Madrid. A catalogue of 400 images will accompany the exhibition. See a preview of Winogrand's extensive collection below:

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Garry Winogrand, New York, 1969; gelatin silver print; Collection SFMOMA, gift of Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein; © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Garry Winogrand, Untitled, 1977; gelatin silver print; Collection SFMOMA, gift of Dr. Paul Getz; © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Garry Winogrand, Sailor, 1950; gelatin silver print; Collection SFMOMA, fractional and promised gift of Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein; © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Garry Winogrand, Los Angeles International Airport, 1964; gelatin silver print; Collection National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Patrons’ Permanent Fund; © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Garry Winogrand, New York World’s Fair, 1964; gelatin silver print; Collection SFMOMA, gift of Dr. L. F. Peede, Jr.; © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Garry Winogrand, Los Angeles, 1964; gelatin silver print; collection SFMOMA, gift of Jeffrey Fraenkel; © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Garry Winogrand, Coney Island, New York, ca. 1952; gelatin silver print; collection The Museum of Modern Art, New York, purchase and gift of Barbara Schwartz in memory of Eugene M. Schwartz; digital image © The Museum of Modern Art/ Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY

Garry Winogrand, White Sands National Monument, New Mexico, 1964; gelatin silver print; collection of Randi and Bob Fisher; © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Garry Winogrand, Albuquerque, 1957; gelatin silver print; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, purchase; © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Garry Winogrand, Fort Worth, Texas, 1974–77. Gelatin silver print. Garry Winogrand Archive, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona; © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Garry Winogrand, Park Avenue, New York, 1959; gelatin silver print; collection National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Patrons' Permanent Fund; image courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Garry Winogrand, John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, 1968; gelatin silver print; collection of John and Lisa Pritzker; © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Garry Winogrand, New York, ca. 1982–83; Gelatin silver print. Garry Winogrand Archive, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona; © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Garry Winogrand, New York, ca. 1982–83; Gelatin silver print. Garry Winogrand Archive, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona; © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Garry Winogrand, Los Angeles, ca.1980–83; gelatin silver print; Garry Winogrand Archive, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona; © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Garry Winogrand, Los Angeles International Airport, 1964; gelatin silver print; Garry Winogrand Archive, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona; © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Garry Winogrand, John F. Kennedy, Democratic National Convention, Los Angeles, 1960; posthumous digital reproduction from original negative; Garry Winogrand Archive, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona; © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Garry Winogrand, Fort Worth, Texas, 1974; gelatin silver print; collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund: gift of Doris and Donald Fisher and Marion E. Greene; © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

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