“Your typical artist is a mule.”

That is what Garry Winogrand said about the work ethic of a successful artist.

This is the only Winogrand photograph that I can find that comes close to being a mule. It’s a horse at the rodeo, and mules are half horse and half donkey.

The most interesting work that I have ever seen in a critique was a byproduct of hard work more than a perfect idea. Usually, such photographs were interesting because the photographer was still discovering what they were looking at; there was something to discuss. There have been critiques where someone has a wonderful idea, and they squarely execute it, leaving little room to comment on anything more than the idea. The idea may sound good but the work was totally expected, and therefore not especially interesting. It is at this precise moment a great idea looses it’s sense of intrigue. I believe that a great idea becomes better when it leaves room for discovery and visual thought.

I enjoy Garry Winogrand for a few reasons. One main reason is that he simply went out and photographed everyday. I am sure there were plenty of days that Winogrand didn’t discover anything with his photographs, he didn’t even develop over 2,500 rolls. He did, however, work more than any photographer I can think of. He also made a great deal of interesting photographs in his life without planning any of them.

I am confident that everyone reading this blog can learn from Winogrand, even if it is just the value of hard work. I should probably be making photographs right now instead of blogging about making photographs.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 3:04 pm and is filed under By Ethan, Photographers, Posts with pictures, Quotes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.