Garry Winogrand - The Man in The Crowd - 1999

Jacket, Some light wear at spine; else in Near Fine condition.

Winogrand belongs to a group of early explorers of that borderland between documentary and art photography, sharing space with Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, and Diane Arbus and building on the work of Walker Evans and Weegee. Yet despite a 1988 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art and a huge influence on a younger generation of art photographers, he remains underappreciated by the general public. Hopefully, this lavish publication, concentrating on his most important body of work, the street scenes, will begin to change that. Winogrand took the workaday street tableau and revealed there an intensity and humanity as clear as in any image in a museum. The majority of the 107 photos capture New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and they now serve the purpose of a time capsule. But more than that they evoke a timeless spirit of individual alive in the city.

"The Man of the Crowd" is a famous short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1840. Set against the backdrop of a bustling, 19th-century London, it is widely celebrated as a foundational text in the development of the modern detective fiction and psychological thriller genres.Plot OverviewThe Setup: An unnamed narrator sits in a London coffee shop, recovering from a long illness. In high spirits, he passes the time by people-watching through the window, categorizing the different social classes and personalities passing by in the dense crowd..

As night falls, he spots a decrepit, thin old man around 65 to 70 years old. The man's face bears an expression of absolute singularity—blending malice, terror, and supreme despair. Underneath his ragged clothes, the narrator glimpses a diamond and a dagger. Overwhelmed by curiosity, the narrator leaves the shop and pursues the old man through the rainy streets for an entire night and into the next day. The old man walks endlessly through markets, packed streets, and slums, but never actually goes anywhere or buys anything. He simply weaves through the thickest parts of the crowd. If the crowd thins out, he panics and rushes to find another group of people. Exhausted after 24 hours of stalking, the narrator steps directly in front of the old man and stares him in the face. The old man completely ignores him and continues walking. Realizing the chase is pointless, the narrator concludes that the man is "the type and the genius of deep crime" who cannot bear to be alone with himself.

The story highlights the paradox of modern city life—being physically surrounded by thousands of people while remaining completely alone and alienated. Poe frames the story around the concept that some secrets are too dark to ever be revealed. He uses a metaphor of a German book that "does not permit itself to be read" to describe the mysterious old man. The old man is a literal "man of the crowd" because he requires the chaotic energy of other human beings to distract him from his own internal horror, past crimes, or agonizing memories.