Walker Evans at work: 745 photographs together with documents selected from letters, memoranda, interviews, notes

by Walker Evans, Jerry L. Thompson

Through the evidence of trial and error in successive images and through Evans's own words this important book reveals how a major American artist actually worked. The 747 photographs document chronologically his choice of subject and his lifelong technical experimentation. Page by page, the reader experiences what Evans saw, what he recorded and how he altered what he recorded to achieve the image he intended. One sees the same subject photographed with different lenses and in different lights; and spreads from Vogue and Fortune

Genres: Photography, Art and Photography

239 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

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

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Walker Evans is not a well-known name, but I would guess that most people have seen some of his photographs. I ran across his name in another book in which there was a showing of his work. So I turned to the internet and discovered that I was familiar with some of his work. This particular book would be of more interest to photographers as they would understand the technical aspects of his work. I know nothing about photography, still, I enjoyed seeing some of Evans work and reading notes he made concerning it. He was a photographer for Fortune magazine for twenty years, but his recognizable pieces are the result of documenting the results of the depression for the U.S. Farm Security department. Evans was an innovator when it came to photography. He said he always took four or five shots, often with different cameras. And he never destroyed negatives that he thought were failures, because it showed him what was wrong. There is an interesting segment on YouTube where he narrates some of his work. Check it out if you are interested. Walker Evans in His Own Words on YouTube, (4:37), J. Paul Getty Museum

[Molaan Mosell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredible book. Very unique. Not only does it show an incredible variety of his photographs, but it shows the original multiple shots of a subject and the editing / cropping that he experimented with. I loved it and did not want to return it to the library.

[Davy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fills a gap in the existing scholarship on the famous photographer, that of his technical routines and strategies, the basic mechanics of his work. Reading this, one gets a feel for how he planned his excursions, how he carried them out, and how he later organized and archived the results. Interesting, but perhaps not essential for most casual readers, or those who wish simply to engage the pictures on their own terms.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

When it comes to photography, quantity does not trump quality.