In Search of Winogrand’s ‘New Mexico, 1957’ (Joe Van Cleave)

I have to mention the story about the photograph from Garry Winogrand below and that was reported in Blake Andrews’ B blog by photographer Kip Praslowics

New Mexico 1957 © Estate of Garry Winogrand

Joe Van Cleave was born in 1957 in Albuquerque, NM i.e. the year the photo is supposed to have been shot. Well… not only the year since Van Cleave did investigation about the location the shot was done after he felt that the place looked familiar to him. And it seems that he finally found the place, in the outskirts of Albuquerque, the city where he was born, in 1957.

The final photo he came up with is the one below shot in 2009 with a very similar vantage point and focal lens as the one from Winogrand, 52 years before:

1208 Muriel St, Albuquerque, NM 2009 © Joe Van Cleave

Read the full story here: http://joevancleave.blogspot.com/2009/08/in-search-of-winogrands-new-mexico-1957.html

The other reason I mention this, beside re-photography, is that this picture from Winogrand is very intriguing, and I like it more than very much. It is the kind of picture that looks like nothing at first sight, but which reveals a lot when you take the time to look at it. And I think it actually tells a lot. Also from aesthetic/composition perspective it is very interesting and IMO quite a successful picture – or at least an important one for me as a growing photographer.