From the Museum to the Street: Garry Winogrand's Public Relations and the Actuality of Protest

Simon Constantine* (Corresponding Author)

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

Focusing on Garry Winogrand’s Public Relations (1977), this article explores the problematic encounter between street photography and protest during the Vietnam War era. In doing so, it considers the extent to which Winogrand’s engagement with protest altered the formalist discourse that had surrounded his practice and the ‘genre’ of street photography more broadly since the 1950s. It is suggested that, although Winogrand never abandoned his debt to this framework, the logic of protest also intensified its internal contradictions, prompting a new attitude towards the crowd, art institution, street and mass media. By exploring this shift, this article seeks to demonstrate that, while the various leftist critiques of Winogrand’s practice remain valid, Public Relations had certain affinities with the progressive artistic and political movements of the period.
Original languageEnglish
Article number59
Number of pages14
JournalArts
Volume8
Issue number2
Early online date3 May 2019
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2019

Bibliographical note

This research received no external funding

Data Availability Statement

No data availability statement

Keywords

  • street photography
  • Winogrand
  • formalism
  • protest
  • Vietnam War
  • documentary

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