"Venice, California"

gelatin silver print

signed (pencil) on verso

Women are better than men. Not only have they survived, they do prevail.Garry Winogrand, who caused an international sensation with his series Women are beautiful, among other things, shows in this picture a street scene on Venice Beach in Los Angeles, where he also lived since 1978. This snapshot is captivating because of the composition with the two male figures in the background, which serve as anchors, as it were, for the naked male back and the desperately looking, old and buttoned-up woman.
Winogrand published the Women are beautiful series in a book in 1975, at the height of the feminist women's movement. In the book's introduction, he writes, "Whenever I saw an attractive woman, I did my best to photograph her. I don't know if all the women in my photos are beautiful too, but I do know that the women in the photos are beautiful."
Nowadays, after the advent of privacy rights debates and a flood of images on social media, intimate shots like these are hard to imagine - because it seems assured that Winogrand never asked for permission when he pressed his shutter button on the camera.
(Fritz Simak and Christoph Fuchs)