If you do a search on Flickr for Willemstad Curacao hundreds of shots looking like the one below or similar will pop up:
Many photographers — including myself — have the urge to get the iconic shot; a unique shot of some subject; something different from the ordinary; the shot that has never been taken. Some estimate somewhere between 1 and 10 trillion photographs were taken in 2015 [1]. According to the Daily Mail, Instagram alone accounted for 113 Billion [2]. The point is the likelihood of getting that unique shot is pretty small, especially when it comes to travel photography.
As I looked through the Winogrand collection at the AGO last week, it struck me that so many of the shots were of rather ordinary events [3]. The appeal to me of many of the shots was largely from the memories evoked rather than the artistic style, message, uniqueness, etc. These shots seem so ordinary. Given the stature of this photographer, and the wide recognition of his work, my subdued reaction lead me to ask what I was missing? How come I didn’t get it?
Winogrand is quoted as saying “No one moment is most important; any moment can be something.” Within the context of that quote I rethought his collection as one of moments and how common many of these moments are to each of us in our lives. In their commodity a connection can be found and shared. Something that brings together; we all see something here that we want to remember. And so it is, that while my snapshots are of ordinary subjects, shot a hundred time before, they capture moments of something that I will recall when I see the picture again at some future date and then I will relive the delight I enjoyed on the first occasion.
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