Walker Evans: Masters of Photography Series

by Walker Evans (Photographer), Walker Evans

Walker Evans, more than any other photographer in the thirties and forties, defined the documentary aesthetic. For over four decades he used his camera precisely and lucidly to record the American experience. He is generally acknowledged as America's finest documentary photographer of the twentieth century. He attempted to show both the beauty of his subjects and the horror of the social conditions in which they lived. During the Depression, from 1935 to 1937, Evans took part in the most extensive photographic project ever carried out in the United States--the pictorial survey of the Farm Security Administration. The now-legendary collaboration with James Agee that resulted in the masterpiece Let Us Now Praise Famous Men documents his dedication to photographing the country he knew. Evans' talented eye and sensitive heart make him one of the great photographers of the twentieth century. This volume contains many of his best-known images.

Genres: Photography, Art, Nonfiction

96 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 1997

About the author

Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans's work from the FSA period uses the large-format, 8x10-inch camera. He said that his goal as a photographer was to make pictures that are "literate, authoritative, transcendent".

Many of his works are in the permanent collections of museums and have been the subject of retrospectives at such institutions as The Metropolitan Museum of Art or George Eastman House.

In 2000, Evans was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame

Reviews

[Hubert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting portrait of a photographer who knew how to access the most intimate scenes of American life, particularly the ordinary, the unexalted, the working class, and the marginalized. Lloyd Fonvielle (a well-known Hollywood screenwriter) provides an excellent, informative, and sensitively rendered introduction.

[Jenny Grover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would have given 5 stars if they had shown some of the Boston photos or the subway riders they talked about in the bio. Still, this was a very nice find in Goodwill for $1.99!

[David Corleto-Bales · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad book of photographs by the great Walker Evans, mostly of the rural South during the 1930s--sharecroppers and barns and faded plantation houses mostly--but also of New York City and other places. Kind of strangely arranged.

[Dorothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genius.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

The introductory essay is a bit florid and dense, but the photos speak for themselves just fine.