Walker Evans

Paper Summary:

American photographer Walker Evans' success was that his images appear to be objective - they are the photographer's evaluations/interpretations of the world before his eye. The paper points out the paradoxical nature of this argument--that Evans' objective, realistic, "documentary" style is his own subjectivity. The paper looks at the context within which Evans was working -- specifically that of the 1930s Farm Security Administration. The paper shows that the images Evans made for "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" (which were included in the FSA file of photographs) serve as the culmination of Evans' talents, as well the utmost realistic portrayal of the conditions that the American tenant-farmer was subject to in the post-Depression 1930s.

From the Paper:

"A man in love with Americana, Evans was a sensualist, a junk collector, a connoisseur, a wit, a perpetual weekend guest. His friendships with Hart Crane, Lincoln Kirstein, and James Agee drew him into the promiscuous New York literary scene in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, and his fierce independence from contemporaries such as Ansel Adams and Margaret Bourke-White brought him notoriety among photographers. Both charismatic and seductively aloof, Evans had a spy's genius for capturing the telling detail."

More papers on Walker Evans:

• Descriptive Essay # 30010 : "Walker Evans"
• Analytical Essay # 7097 : "Humanism in the Photography of Walker Evans"
• Analytical Essay # 6519 : "Walker Evans"

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