Garry Winogrand At The Metropolitan Museum

The Garry Winogrand retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art presents a generous sampling of the photographer's work, which was first centered around New York City before encompassing the Midwest and California. His NYC work, shot in midtown Manhattan in the 1950s and 1960s, captures the city at a time when its inhabitants were more formally attired and less culturally diverse than they are today (see above, from 1962). He also portrayed the turmoil of the late 1960s with portraits of anti-Vietnam war protests in Central Park and construction worker riots against peace demonstrators. When Winogrand went west, he depicted a country adrift: faceless suburbs, self-absorbed pedestrians, a legless veteran at an American Legion convention, a woman who is a hit-and-run victim lying in the street as a car drives by. Similar to his peers Diane Arbus and Lee Friedlander, Garry Winogrand's black-and-white photos have a haunting power.

"Garry Winogrand" continues through September 21, 2014, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St., NYC; (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org