Many are Called

by Walker Evans, Jeff L. Rosenheim, Lucy Sante

Between 1936 and 1941 Walker Evans and James Agee collaborated on one of the most provocative books in American literature, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941). While at work on this book, the two also conceived another less well-known but equally important book project entitled Many Are Called. This three-year photographic study of subway passengers made with a hidden camera was first published in 1966, with an introduction written by Agee in 1940. Long out of print, Many Are Called is now being reissued with a new foreword and afterword and with exquisitely reproduced images from newly prepared digital scans.
Many Are Called came to fruition at a slow pace. In 1938, Walker Evans began surreptitiously photographing people on the New York City subway. With his camera hidden in his coat—the lens peeking through a buttonhole—he captured the faces of riders hurtling through the dark tunnels, wrapped in their own private thoughts. By 1940-41, Evans had made over six hundred photographs and had begun to edit the series. The book remained unpublished until 1966 when The Museum of Modern Art mounted an exhibition of Evans’s subway portraits.
This beautiful new edition—published in the centenary year of the NYC subway—is an essential book for all admirers of Evans’s unparalleled photographs, Agee’s elegant prose, and the great City of New York.

Genres: Photography, Art, Nonfiction, Underground Railway, Classics, Art and Photography

208 pages, Hardcover

First published October 11, 2004

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

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Walker Evans took these pictures of people on the New York subway (1938-1941). Using a hidden camera Evans was able to catch them going about their day to day existence...most never aware of the fact that their picture was taken. Truly amazing photos that will stay with you long after you have finished the book.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Walker Evans didn’t want to publish this masterpiece of portraits because he felt they were so candid as to be an invasion of privacy. Between 1938 and 1941 he snuck a camera under his coat on the New York City subway and snapped photos of passengers in the seats across from him, unaware that they were being photographed – although a few certainly were aware that the guy across from them was was up to something odd because several people are giving him the “side eye.” Evans states these photos show people with their “masks off,” but I disagree: they wear the stoney masks of people in public who wish not to make eye contact with anyone in their vicinity. They are not photographed with their guards down, but with their guards up. But the result is the same: one of the most striking collections of twentieth-century portrait photography. People from all walks of life are unposed, but posed; unguarded, but guarded; in public (physically), but in private (silently inside their own heads); clothed (in massive coats and hats from circa 1940), but naked (metaphorically). A classic photography book.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't even finish reading 50 Photographers You Should Know before I put this on hold. Evans concealed a camera in his coat and took surreptitious pictures on the New York City Subway during the late 30s and early 40s. I loved seeing older women before plastic surgery became a thing and also the many hats people wore as a matter of daily life.

[Paige]

‘Those who use the New York subways are several millions. The facts about them are so commonplace that they have become almost as meaningless, as impossible to realize, as death in war.

[Jeff Copetas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book of photography is really quite captivating. Walker Evans basically snuck a camera onto the New York Subways over a fairly lengthy time period in the 1930s and took pictures of everyday people riding the trains. Nobody knew he had a camera, so the photos are very real and the whole thing feels like a time capsule. Really interesting stuff.

[Holly Socolow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was inspired to take in Many Are Called at the same time as listening to Rules of Civility which begins with a couple at an exhibition of Walker Evans’ iconic subway photos. These amazing photos made between 1938 and 1941 recall a time when both women and men of all walks of life wore hats. So many of them are looking off into the middle distance, seemingly lost in thought or perhaps studiously avoiding eye contact. Any interpretation is, of course, projection. And Amor Towles was captivated enough with the images to create an entire period piece, bringing it all to life. Provocative.

[Ray LaManna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The photographs in his book are both beautiful and haunting. Walker Evans secretly photographed people riding in the New York City subway system from 19 38–19 41. I think this is the way that true portraiture in photography should be conducted.

Even though these pictures were taken over 80 years ago, they still speak to us of the human condition

A truly beautiful book.

[Emma Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a collection of Walker Evans' secret portraits on the subway of New York City in the late 1930's and early 1940's. I love the vulnerability in these portraits and the questions this project raises about privacy, identity, representation and permission - none of his subjects agreed to be photographed as is the case with a lot of street photography because it's considered the public domain. Evans would hide is camera in his jacket and have a friend or assistant come along with him at times as a decoy...I wish I could be there to watch him work! There are certain people in the photographs who are looking directly into the camera, which leads me to believe that they knew they were being photographed. I wonder if he was confronted by anyone or ever asked to see the images.

This is a wonderful book about one of my favorite photographer's of all time.

[Oriana]

In 1938, Walker Evans began surreptitiously photographing people on the New York City subway. With his camera hidden in his coat — the lens peeking through a buttonhole — he captured the faces of riders hurtling through the dark tunnels, wrapped in their own private thoughts.

Unbelievable! I have always wanted to do that!!!

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a wonderful tragedy and melancholy to these pictures, and I think along with Message from the Interior, it's my favorite work by Evans (I know I am suppose to say American Photographs is his best work, but what'dya gonna do?). The reproductions, at least in the original version of this book, leave a bit to be desired.

[Brian Hutzell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several decades before Humans of New York, Walker Evans took a series of candid photos of New Yorkers on the subway. The result is Many Are Called, and it’s wonderful! There is no verbiage to accompany the photos, so we are left to imagine the stories behind them.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reviewed this book in a blog post here: http://thedailyflashkube.com/2009/11/...

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really wonderful candid subway photos from the '30's.

[Meade · Rating 4 out of 5]

These photos are fascinating glimpses of people being themselves. A great look into an era.

[Gerry Durisin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the photos in this book are likely excellent, for one not knowledgeable about this art form, the collection was a bit disappointing in its uniformity. Although the forward by James Agee mentions that the subjects represented the great diversity of NYC with "every nation on earth represented," eighty-seven of the portraits were of white men and women; the remaining two showed a black man and a black woman. No Asian faces appeared at all. Many of the portraits included the same signage in the background, and nearly all showed a single subject directly facing the camera with a blank expression. Evans took these photos in the NYC subways over several years (1938-1941) hiding his camera under his coat so the lens peeked out through a small slit and his subjects were unaware they were being photographed. This collection was one inspiration for Amor Towles' novel Rules of Civility.

[Barry Cunningham · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting covert street photography exhibit of pictures taken on the New York subway in 1938, 1940, and 1941.
Nowadays, with our smartphones and small high-ISO P&S cameras, taking such photos is not much of a technical challenge. It’s easy to overlook just how hard this was to do with a 35mm Contax beneath one’s winter coat with a bulb release routed down the sleeve. But the pictures are a remarkable time capsule of some of life’s unguarded, boring moments. Ordinary then. Gone now. Brutally forgotten otherwise.

[Julie Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

4+

[Lynn Derks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first became aware of Walker Evans and these photographs through the novel by Amor Towles, RULES OF CIVILITY. Interestingly enough, the book of this collection was available at the Denver Public Library. So, of course, I checked it out and enjoyed the experience of actually seeing the photographs. All of the photographs were taken between 1938 and 1941 - so, if nothing else, we have a poignant record of people in New York City at the end of the Great Depression and just prior to WWII.

[Jeff Sharlet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Walker Evans, but I found this book strangely disappointing. He doesn't see much more on the subway than an open-eyed observer might. I think this project was a diversion for him; it's been published as part of the canonization of Evans for his other, much greater work.