Artist Study- Walker Evans

Artistic Study- Walker Evans

     Walker Evans, born in 1903, was a very influential artist.  He perfected the use of his equipment to deliver perfectly clear photos and his publications inspired many other fantastic artists as well.  He was able to take pictures and really tell a story as if it was already historic documentaries or photojournalism.  This is what made him stand out amoungst his peers.  His focus was on recording the typical American scene by taking pictures of streets, bedrooms and people milling about, recording a visual history of American life. 

     Walker Evans died in 1975, and of his 72 years, he was a photographer for 48 of them.  He was born in Missouri and moved to New York early in life.  He traveled to Paris for a year to improve his French and then returned to New York.  His early training was in Language Arts and had a passion for literature and poetry.  He wrote short stories and essays and had plans of making that into his career.  When he started getting into photography though, he realized he could merge his two passions and create images unlike anyone else had.  Using his training, he brought lyricism, irony, descriptions and creativity into his photography work. 

     Walker was tasked with documenting small town life and attempted to demonstrate how improvements were being made by the government during the depression.  Walker didn’t like being given an agenda however, so he took on something much more personal to him- capturing the essence of American life by documenting the simple and the ordinary.  In 1936, Evans was called on to photography Alabama families for Fortune magazine, and his work was such an incredible representation of the farmers and how they journeyed through the Great Depression tragedy, that Evans’ “Let Us Know Pparise Famous Men” became one of the top achievements of the 20^th century American letters.

     Evans had his first decade of photography work showcased in the Museum of Modern Art in September of 1938.  This collection showed pioneers farmers, miners, war veterans and every day people.  Towns, factories, ordinary signs, churches and houses were also depicted to highlight the Depression and it’s effect on everyone.  His portraits he took in the subway from 1938-1941 were finally published in 1966 in a book called “Many Are Called” included them.  Taking these subway pictures was accomplished by strapping a 35mm Contax camera to his chest with the lens peaking out of his jacket.  He photographed people in commute without their knowledge so he could capture their unguarded, thought provoking expressions and moods.  In his words he did this because their “guard is down and the mask is off” (The Metropolitan Museum of Art; www.metmuseum.org).

     Evans started with Contax equipment then progressed to Polaroid SX-70 in 1973.  The
manufacturer gave him an unlimited source of film to go with the camera and provided him with instant prints to critique.  This camera fit his poetic vision of the world and were to be his final photographs.  Using this new camera he returned to taking pictures of what made him fall in love with photography- signs, posters (and the wear and tear due to weather, neglect or war).  Photography whether done as 8x10’s with elaborate equipment, or by the Polaroid instant cameras, were before post editing with computers became the norm.