PHOTO CONFESSIONAL: Craig Win
Barbara’s torso, 1981, Rutland, Vermont
IF YOU WEREn’T A PHOTOGRAPHER, WHAT OTHER PROFESSION WOULD YOU PICK?
After a year or so of being a professional photographer I did ask myself that question and immediately changed careers. I found the business of photography too singular and restricting. I couldn’t see myself spending a life doing this work. I had a photo studio at the time. I was about 23 years old, just out of The Art Center College of Design specializing in large format product and studio advertising work. So, I took the business marketing education I received at USC and offered it to the clients I’d previously worked for as a photographer. The studio grew into a full service Los Angeles and Atlanta based advertising agency. I spent my first professional years as a Creative Director and advertising agency CEO. So, it’s not so much what career I would have picked but which one I did.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST CRUCIAL DECISION YOU HAVE MADE IN YOUR CAREER’s DEVELOPMENT?
Not the easiest question answered. I can’t exactly describe my life as having a single career path. More like many mini paths, running in different directions, all finally landing together here where I sit at this little Cafe in Mexico City with a coffee, croissant, and my lover. As for decisions I took (once I learned the lesson), I chose to always take the easiest path placed in front of me. If it looked like more fun, more interesting than the thing I was doing at the time, I’d do it instead. I found that I’m unsuccessful at the things I try the hardest at and most successful at the things that come easiest and most naturally. This has been true in all my pursuits; business, recreational, and artistic.
AT WHAT POINT DID YOU FEEL YOU WERE A PHOTOGRAPHER, AND WHAT MADE YOU THINK THAT WAY?
I remember a little steel gray plastic camera around my neck, walking around my block and stopping in front of a neighbor’s house, stepping on their lawn, seeing a little brown grasshopper perched on green grass. I raised my camera, pointed in her direction and snapped the shutter. Days later a little glossy black-and-white picture came back from the store and in it I saw a now little gray grasshopper on now grey grass and was proud of what I made. I showed it to my parents but they couldn’t see the grasshopper because to them it was only a little grey shape hidden on a grey textured background. But I saw it. I saw something that no one else could see. This is when I became a photographer. I was five years old.
Ghost dog looking at cross, 2022, Coyoacán, México
HOW IMPORTANT IS RESEARCH IN YOUR WORK?
Research is the most important thing in my image making in that none ever be done. The pictures I make are from random moments in my life, of special lovers in my life, or from the random places and situations I find myself. Having a vague idea of how bright the day will be to help me choose film speed and the colors I’ll be dealing with to help me filter the color spectrum into desirable grays is about the extent of the research I do.
IS THERE A PHOTOGRAPHER/ARTIST WHO IS A CONSTANT REFERENCE FOR YOU?
Yeah, I would say there are two photographers that I mentally refer to and doing so has only made me a weaker photographer. I won’t bother saying who they are because that doesn’t matter. But I will say that when they pop in mind when framing a shot, comparing my image to how they would have shot it, does nothing but distract me, change even imperceptibly a previously accurate expressive composition and hence ruin the image. So, I pretty much distance myself from other people’s work. Besides, I’m more of a Caravaggio kind of guy and not a big fan of the modern photographic arts.
WHAT WOULD YOU NOT WANT TO PHOTOGRAPH?
I would not want to photograph a wedding, high school graduation pictures, or a bar mitzvah. I actually don’t take pictures of things. Or very rarely. What I do shoot and why I do, I’ve thought a lot about over the years. And I’m barely closer to the answer now than when I asked it of myself fifty or so years ago when I first noticed that my pictures didn’t make any sense to me. What my camera captures seems to be inexplicable metaphors. The twisted shapes of a particular tree has its own particular meanings. A boulder’s relationship with what surrounds it somehow vaguely remind me of something like a memory I can’t quite grasp, reflects something about how I’m feeling. It kind of speaks to me in a visual language I can’t understand. Like trying to interpret a dream’s metaphor, I can never be quite sure of its actual meaning. So basically, if the picture haunts me, gives me the chills, I figure it’s a good one.
Wedding dress, 2006, New Orleans, Louisiana
WHAT EQUIPMENT DO YOU USE, AND WHAT IMPORTANCE DO YOU GIVE TO TECHNIQUE?
I work now in medium format and I shoot with either a Hasselblad 500CM or Rolleiflex 2.8d. And I would be lying to say I’ve chosen these cameras for any other reason than because I couldn’t afford them as a kid and now I can and they impress people on the street when they see me walking around with it. That’s my narcissism. As for technique, it is extraordinarily important. I’m a professionally trained photographer and understand the science of Photosensitometry and how to accurately capture a pre-visualized image. That was paramount back when I worked under Art Directors and as “fine artist” today.
WHAT IS THE STARTING POINT OF YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS?
This is gonna sound simplistic or crazy, but this is what I do. When it’s time for me to take pictures I will stop, close my eyes and say to myself, “When I open my eyes I will see.” I open my eyes (I don’t understand how or why this works) and the real world I was just looking at changes and I begin to see a different world, one of shapes and tones each becoming symbols or metaphors of how I feel. Yeah, I’m very aware how stupid this sounds. My response to that opinion is, “I agree with you completely. And, welcome to my fucking life.”
Luz del Carmen lighting a pipe at a cafe, 2019, Paris, France
HOW DO YOU DEFINE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY WITH A # TAG ?
Oh wow, I hate this question. If I had to answer it, I’d answer it with four words, remove the space between them and try to convince you it’s really only one. It would be what I named my Instagram account: #Throughmylefteye.
HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH REJECTION?
Look, I spent 50 years of my life showing my work to perhaps four people, three of which didn’t give a shit. I’ve never photographed with anybody in mind other than myself. The fact that I have an Instagram account with close to 20,000 followers is shocking, surprising to say the least. For the longest time I actually had Cognitive Dissonance over it… couldn’t resolve the difference between what I was experiencing with people’s interest against a life full of the disinterested. But regardless, I consider people who look at my pictures as voyeurs peeking in my bedroom window after my having left the drapes wide open. I make my pictures with no one else in mind. Other opinions as to whether my work is successful or not is meaningless to me. Of course, I like the compliments and how people often say my stuff inspires them (something I highly doubt though), and how my work evokes other’s lost memories, emotions, and inspires them to share publicly their very personal stories. I’m also far too confident in what I do to take seriously the opinion of the invisible masses who look at my stuff.
HOW DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE ACCOMPLISHED SUCH SUCCESS?
First of all, let’s define the word, “success”. It has nothing to do with anything external to me, certainly not sales or popularity. If an image is successful, I can look at the final print and re experience my feelings to a greater degree than how I was feeling at the moment it was captured… often a sensation of hauntedness. If it does that, I consider it a success. How I achieve that in my work? Well, I never looked at anybody else’s photographs growing up and rarely do today. I never learned what a photo is supposed to look like, so it’s easier for me to look at my pictures and see them as atypical. Which to me means successful.
Portrait of Nancy in the pool house, 1977, Beverly Hills, California
HOW DO YOU APPROACH STRANGERS IN YOUR PROJECTS OR TO INCLUDE IN YOUR PROJECTS?
A related question was asked of me recently; “What do you do if someone sees you taking a picture of them?” My response was, “I take a picture of someone seeing themselves photographed”. When it comes to people in my photographs, populating my frame, I consider them little more than graphic elements to be used in the composition or the metaphor within. The huge huge exception is my use of “the Muse”. My lovers in life have always been my inspiration. My motivation to create. And my models.
Three dead trees in front of a pond, 2021, Santa Clarita, California
IS IT COMMON FOR YOU TO QUESTION YOURSELF OR YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY?
Does this question really need to be asked? I think my cat even questions itself. The guy working the night shift at Seven Eleven who refuses my credit card questions himself. What artist doesn’t struggle with questions about life, self, and the work they produce? So my answer is, “Not really.”
how is your approach to the art world/ Photo-Book world
The last thing I ever wanted to do was be a professional artist. I was a pretty serious kid so I studied business and marketing as my means to create wealth. Even today, when arguably I could be considered an artist and photographer, still years later it’s grating to my ears when somebody calls me one or the other. So my relationship to the art world is nonexistent. As for pursuing exhibition and representation, it’s not worth the effort. I have no motivation, no time, no interest in going there. And I’m far too cynical to play the art world game and deal with children and egotistical personalities. I have no doubt that when I’m dead and gone, every picture I’ve ever made, every word I’ve ever written, will be dead and gone along with me. Far better that than a picture of mine found hanging in the dusty dank back corner of some thrift store in Tustin, California.
David on ramp, 1978, Los Angeles, California
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO A NEW PHOTOGRAPHER WHO IS JUST STARTING OUT?
Even though I like to fool people into thinking I’m an asshole who doesn’t care about others, the truth is I care very much about people who struggle and search for answers. As much as I can, (but only when asked) I help support others hopscotch over lessons that don’t necessarily need to be learned the hard way. For commercial photographers my answer comes as a guy who spent years as an advertising Creative Director and also as a commercial photographer and fine artist trained at The Art Center College of Design and the School of Visual Arts. To them I’d suggest, learn your craft completely and thoroughly, of course. Understand the science of Photosensitometry. Be able to previsualize an image and capture that perfectly. That’s what I expected of photographers who worked for me. And most importantly, don’t mistake your commercial photography with fine art photography. That is something to aspire to and not something to take for granted. For the fine art photographer my opinion, and repeat opinion, is look at your photograph. If you’ve ever seen anything even remotely similar, anywhere ever before, toss the damned thing out and keep moving forward. The rest is the fun part… and you’ll discover that for yourself only with time.
ABOUT Craig Winner
“Hi Roberto. I have an idea but I absolutely want you feel free to say no, you’d rather not. Totally 100% cool either way. It regards my bio/profile. Pretty much all the relevant info about me is mentioned in my answers. Now I can blah blah blah something boring together. I was thinking that it would be be more interesting if you wrote something about how you “discovered” me (as I truly do considered and credit you as what you did). You can just give a little review in what you see in my work and your opinions and insights. This would definitely add a dimension to the piece all around. But again, just a suggestion. I’m fine either way”.
Portrait By Byron Winner, 1966, Yosemite, California
February 22, 2023
- Hi Mr. Win. Roberto Mata from Miami. I run a school of photography And I would like to feature your work in our newsletter If you like the idea.
Sure. Let me know if you’d like to see others. I’d so, the classic b/w or color work. I’m very honored.
- Thank you! What about choosing 3 of them and a 100 words text to explain your goal with your IG account?
Sounds good. When would you like it. Is there a deadline?
Here is the text:
“I am posting my photos, at least one a day, for thirty two days on Instagram. It’s only because of a challenge from a friend, but doing so is also personally important. I’ve had a camera strapped around my neck for 55 years, ever since I was six years old walking around the block taking pictures of grasshoppers. I have rarely shown my black and white images. They are too personal. But they are now going up. People are peeking under the covers looking at these things on “throughmylefteye.” The response has been surprising. Now the only question is, will there be a day thirty three. We’ll see”.
I never believed that Mr. Win would stop posting on day thirty-two. Never.
Mr. Win, now my friend Craig, had the urge to photograph from deep inside, and for me, that was clear, and I wanted to witness the process. It’s beautiful, at least to me, to be virtually close to someone who photographs without expecting anything from anyone.
As a photographer, Craig is a not-solicited lesson on photography, but the more I see his pictures, the more I learn.
Thanks, Craig, for the honesty in your images. For me, the most relevant aspect.
-roberto
