Garry Winogrand was born in New York City in 1928; he became interested in photography in the late 1940's when he was in the United States Air Force. When he was done his term of duty, he went on to City College in New York City to study painting. A year later he went to Columbia University to study both painting and photography. There he met George Zimbel, a student and photographer for the Columbia Spectator, the university newspaper. Zimbel introduced Garry to the darkroom in the college, which was open twenty-four hours a day. This was the first time Garry had been exposed to the process of photography, and it amazed him. Within two weeks, he dropped his painting classes. Winogrand started off experimenting with Graphlex, Rolleicord, and Kodak 35, but had a better love for the Leica.
He lived with his parents in the Bronx, during the two-year period when his photography didn't gain him any income. By the early 1950's Winogrand was taken on as a stringer (a freelance photographer) for the Pix agency, where his friend George Zimbel was also working.
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