Walker Evans (1903-1975)

"Leaving aside the mysteries and the inequities of human talent, brains, taste, and reputations, the matter of art in photography may come down to this: it is the capture and projection of the delights of seeing; it is the defining of observation full and felt."

Walker Evans

Walker Evans began to photograph in the late 1920s, making snapshots during a European trip. Upon his return to New York, he published his first images in 1930. During the Great Depression, Evans began to photograph for the Resettlement Administration, later known as the Farm Security Administration (FSA), documenting workers and architecture in the Southeastern states. In 1936 he traveled with the writer James Agee to illustrate an article on tenant farm families for Fortune magazine; the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men came out of this collaboration.

Throughout his career Evans contributed photographs to numerous publications, including three devoted solely to his work. In 1965 he left Fortune, where he had been a staff photographer for twenty years, to become a professor of photography and graphic design at Yale University. He remained in the position until 1974, a year before his death.

source: Getty Museum
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=1634&page=2

Walker Evans
New York City, 1929
Gelatin silver print
7 1/4 x 5 in.

Walker Evans
Brooklyn Bridge, 1928-29
Gelatin silver print

Walker Evans
Girl in Fulton Street
New York, 1929

Walker Evans
New York City, 1929
Gelatin silver print

Walker Evans
6th Avenue and 42nd Street, 1929
Gelatin silver print

Walker Evans
Subway portrait
1938 - 1941
Gelatin silver print
6 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.

Walker Evans
Five Men Playing Basketball: For the Series "Dress"
New York City, April 9, 1963
Gelatin silver print
8 5/16 x 11 3/4 in.

Walker Evans
Graffiti: Dead End
about 1973-74
Polaroid SX-70 print
3 1/8 x 3 1/16 in

Walker Evans
Saint Martin, West Indies, 1974
Dye diffusion print
4 1/4 x 3 1/2 in.

© Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Comments

Carl Hahn said…

Very intresting article and also the photographs. Could spend hours looking at all the links.

November 28, 2010 at 4:28 AM

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