Ah man, if only I could shoot like Garry Winogrand!
No, don’t misunderstand me please. I don’t mean to shoot photographs like him (I’ll never be up to that), but to shoot, to physically shoot like he did. I have always been intrigued by his mannerisms when he shoots.
Just watch this documentary of him, watch him fiddling with his camera.
Does he give you the impression he took photographs? Do you think a lot of his ‘subjects’ had the impression he did photograph them? But he did, believe me, he did. Thousands of rolls weren’t even developed when he unfortunately died.
He is so obviously preoccupied or he makes believe he is, with his Leica that it seems he hardly has the time to make a photograph. Always on the move, always busy, almost hectically so.
You can be furtive about photographing in the streets and hope not to be caught out. Or you can be as obvious as him, plainly show that you are making Photographs, or trying to, but not really showing what you are photographing.
I would like to be able to imitate him. Not in the quality of my photography, I would never assume to be able to do that But rather in his modus operandum. He seems at ease shooting people up close, and they mostly don’t have the impression of being part of it. I would like to overcome the fear of photographing people. I don’t TAKE anything from them (photographers, after all don’t steal souls, it seems), I MAKE something, a photograph, a picture that will remain, that will tell a story.
All that said, Garry Winogrand seems nearly apologetic when people accost him. Almost shy, but always smiling!
As Matt Stuart, great street photographer said: “Buy a good pair of comfortable shoes, have a camera around your neck at all times, keep your elbows in, be patient, optimistic and don’t forget to smile”
As always, thanks for bearing with me! Thanks for being here!
Frank Lehnen Photography 
He had his particular way. But the connection with people will always be different now. The times have changed and photographers get a lot of bullshit on streets, especialy with social media. Everyone is scared that they’d be exposed in bad way or smth. I know it sounds ridiculous to us but for them… They forget that they are being watched everywhere by CCTV, that – they don’t mind..
LikeLiked by 2 people
Absolutely right, CCTV does not bother them, but a camera… horror! It’s partly understandable with all the Facebook stuff etc. But when you show them that you don’t even have a screen on your bloody camera and that it’s quite hard to delete the picture they shrug and move on… mostly.
Of course street photography is becoming difficult.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The best thing we can do is smile and be polite
LikeLiked by 1 person
His fidgety style really is quite bizarre – almost MORE likely to arouse suspicion…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Amazing how quick he is with that manual, film Leica.
LikeLiked by 1 person