The photographs by Garry Winogrand (1928-1984) and Larry Clark (born 1943) redefined documentary photography of the 1960s-70s American social landscape.

Winogrand, a tireless and prolific street photographer, captured people he encountered by chance in public places with an informal, candid snapshot immediacy. He focused on the most ordinary activities and occurrences to create images of surprising, often witty, juxtapositions resulting in ambiguous, yet tantalizing, narratives. Fifteen photographs from Winogrand’s 1981 portfolio Women Are Better Than Men…celebrate urban and suburban women of all ages.

Instead of making strangers the subject of his camera, Larry Clark photographed his Oklahoma home town friends instead. His portfolio Tulsa (1971) is an intensely intimate portrayal of aimless youths experimenting with drugs, sex, and guns. The raw honesty of his photographs shattered myths of the wholesome lifestyle and values of heartland America. Drawn from the Zimmerli Art Museum’s collection, this exhibition of approximately thirty photographs by Winogrand and Clark challenges viewers to re-examine the composite picture of American society then and now. This exhibition is organized by Marilyn Symmes, Director of the Morse Research Center for Graphic Arts and Curator of Prints and Drawings.

Image: Garry Winogrand !1928-1984) The Centennial Ball in New York 1969 Private Collection

www.zimmerlimuseum.rutgers.edu

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