Winningham, Geoff(rey) (L.) 1943-

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WINNINGHAM, Geoff(rey) (L.) 1943-

PERSONAL: Born March 4, 1943, in Jackson, TN; married Judy Gordon, 1973; children: Elizabeth, Alyson, Charles, Michael. Education: Attended Rice University, 1961-65; Illinois Institute of Technology, M.S., 1968.

ADDRESSES: Office—P.O. Box 2011, Houston, TX 77001. Agent—Harris Gallery, 1100 Bissonnet, Houston, TX 77004.

CAREER: Freelance photographer for numerous national magazines, Houston, TX, 1968—. New Trier Township High School, Winnetka, IL, instructor, 1966-68; University of St. Thomas, Houston, 1968-69; Rice University, Houston, faculty member, 1969—, currently professor of art and master of Wiess College.

AWARDS, HONORS: Public Broadcasting Corporation grant, 1971; Guggenheim fellowship, 1972, 1978; Documentary Prize, U.S. Film Festival, 1973; National Endowment for the Arts public grant, 1974, photography fellowships, 1975, 1977; Director's Award, American Society of Art, 1975.

WRITINGS:

Going Texan: The Days of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, text by William C. Martin [Houston, TX], 1972.

A Texas Dozen: Fifteen Photographs by Geoff Winningham (portfolio), [Houston, TX], 1976.

Friday Night in the Coliseum, Allison Press (Houston, TX), 1977.

Rites of Fall: High School Football in Texas, text by Al Reinert and Don Meredith, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 1979.

A Place of Dreams: Houston, An American City, text by Al Reinert, Rice University Press (Houston, TX), 1986.

Rice University: A 75th-Anniversary Portrait, text by John B. Coles and Fryar Calhoun, Rice University Press (Houston, TX), 1987.

In the Eye of the Sun: Mexican Fiestas, text by J. M. G. Le Clezio, W. W. Norton (New York, NY), 1997.

SIDELIGHTS: Renowned as a photographic chronicler of Texas and Texans, Geoff Winningham has produced a number of books illustrating the customs of the outsized state, especially its devotion to sports. Friday Night in the Coliseum vividly illustrates the world of big-time wrestling and its devoted fans, interspersing action photos and crowd reactions with the words of the wrestlers themselves. Rites of Fall: High School Football in Texas focuses on a subject that is almost a religion in small Texas towns, capturing the unbridled energy, high-strung emotions, and elaborate ceremony surrounding the games and their young athletes. Reviewing an exhibit of Winningham's photos, a Dallas Morning News critic wrote, "His frequently unflattering images are never mean-spirited in their depiction of Texas manners and society. It is the complete immersion of his subjects in their activities that creates the often comic effect of Mr. Winningham's photographs."

In The Eye of the Sun: Mexican Fiestas, Winningham crossed the Rio Grande to capture the rituals of a different culture. While faulting some of the photos for lacking context or an organizing principle, an Austin American-Statesman reviewer noted that "Winningham's colors are always extraordinary, and many of the compositions are realized with a painterly delicacy. … The sequence on the Day of the Dead, especially, achieves a domestic quiet and beauty that befits the melding of the ordinary and the divine."