New York City, from the portfolio “Women are Beautiful”

Artist/Maker Garry Winogrand (American, 1928 - 1984)

Date1969, published 1982

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 8 7/8 × 13 5/16 in. (22.5 × 33.8 cm) Sheet: 11 × 13 15/16 in. (27.9 × 35.4 cm)

Credit LineGift of Christopher P. Gane

Object number1982.29.1

Not on view

DescriptionGarry Winogrand originally studied painting at City College of New York and then at Columbia University before taking up photography. In the early 1950s, he worked for a number of photo agencies; he was seldom without his Leica M4 camera, and he has often been credited with inventing street photography as we know it. Upon his death in 1984, 2,500 rolls of film he had shot were left undeveloped. Winogrand typically waited a year or two before developing his film, so that he no longer had any personal connection to the images and could curate a selection objectively. This photograph is from the series “Women Are Beautiful,” published in book form in 1975 and as a portfolio of fifteen prints in 1981. Most of the works in the series were shot in the 1960s and document women’s changing socioeconomic role as they came to make up a larger part of the workforce, vocalized their rights in writing and public protests, and expressed themselves more forcefully through their dress. To a certain degree, the images also reveal the artist’s insecurity about women in the years surrounding the collapse of his first marriage, which ended in 1963. Part voyeuristic, part celebratory, the portfolio includes a colophon bearing the following quotation from the artist: “Women are better than men. Not only have they survived, they do prevail.” (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017)

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Additional Details

Alternate Titles 1969 New York City, New York

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 97, illus.).

Provenance 1982: Hamilton College (Fred L. Emerson Gallery), by gift of Christopher P. Gane.

Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 216.

Signature Signed "Garry Winogrand" on verso at lower left in pencil.