Question 1

True or false: He famously said, 'I photograph to see what the world looks like in photographs.'

Accepted Answer

True. This quote captures his spontaneous, curious approach—using the camera to discover rather than to confirm preconceived ideas.

Question 2

True or false: He used a wide-angle lens almost exclusively to capture his signature crowded, dynamic street scenes.

Accepted Answer

True. Winogrand favored a 28mm or 35mm wide-angle lens on his Leica, allowing him to include multiple subjects and action in tight frames.

Question 3

True or false: He won a Guggenheim Fellowship three times for his photography projects.

Accepted Answer

True. Winogrand received Guggenheim Fellowships in 1964, 1969, and 1978, a rare achievement supporting his work documenting American life.

Question 4

True or false: Garry Winogrand shot over 20,000 rolls of film, leaving thousands undeveloped at his death.

Accepted Answer

True. He left behind roughly 2,500 undeveloped rolls and 6,500 unedited rolls, totaling over 300,000 unprocessed images.

Question 5

True or false: Winogrand never photographed animals; his entire body of work focuses exclusively on humans.

Accepted Answer

False. He famously photographed animals in zoos, particularly apes, as seen in his series 'The Animals' and other street scenes with pets.

Question 6

True or false: Winogrand's first major museum exhibition was at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1963.

Accepted Answer

False. His first major solo show was actually at the George Eastman House in 1963; MoMA featured him later in group shows and a posthumous retrospective.

Question 7

True or false: Winogrand taught photography at the University of Texas at Austin for over a decade.

Accepted Answer

False. He taught at the University of Texas at Austin only briefly (1978-1979) before his death; he had no long tenure there.

Question 8

True or false: Winogrand was colorblind, which influenced his preference for black-and-white film.

Accepted Answer

False. He had normal color vision; his choice of black-and-white was aesthetic, not medical, and he occasionally shot color film for assignments.

Garry Winogrand Trivia Questions