Garry Winogrand, World's Fair, New York, 1964 © Estate of Garry Winogrand

Shoot first, a lot. Edit later. That seemed to be one of the driving attitudes of the world's most compulsive photographer.

Garry Winogrand was a manic photographer of social landscapes in America. He was notorious for walking through crowded public and private spaces while snapping literally hundreds of photos, often without (too obviously) aiming. His genius was to put himself into situations where this approach would bear fruit, and then to review and edit his photographs ruthlessly to pluck out the fortunate gems.

One bit of mythic legend is that when he died in 1984 at age 56, he left behind nearly 300,000 unedited images, as well as more than 2,500 undeveloped rolls of film!

I always thought that "fact" was a gross exageration to help expand the myth about the man. However, I was delighted to discover this footage of Winogrand talking with Bill Moyers in 1982. And now I believe every word of the legend.

Thanks to the folks at the wonderful blog, 2point8.whileseated.org, for sharing this with us.

Cheers!