In January, Richmond Magazine interviewed Chair of Photography + Film Sasha Waters-Freyer about her latest project, All Things Are Photographable. The documentary, which covers the life and work of photographer Garry Winogrand, recently wrapped production shortly after the announcement of a $35,000 award from the Derek Freese Film Foundation. In the interview, Waters-Freyer discussed her inspiration for the project and why Winogrand’s photography is still relevant today.
I was a photography major myself in New York in the 1980s, and so I knew his work and I really loved it and admired it. But I, like other people, sort of forgot [about him]. I hadn’t looked at his books in a long time. And then, when there was this traveling retrospective that started a few years ago, I sort of remembered that I really love this photographer. I really love his work. Hadn’t thought about him in a while. I started looking at his books, and I thought, ‘I wonder if there’s a documentary about him.’ He’s an amazing artist, and he’s a fascinating guy. So I called his gallery, who works with his estate, and asked why there wasn’t a documentary about him, and they said, ‘No one’s ever asked.’
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There’s a way you can see this story of American social life and social fabric reflected in his individual story. He was also a first generation Hungarian-Jewish immigrant, so he’s also got that immigrant story, where he’s part of that generation of young people who came out of a very working-class family in the Bronx, and just invents himself as an artist in a way that is really kind of remarkable. His relationship to photography and his coming-of-age story is really the classic American story.
Read the full interview here.
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