Walker Evans

by Walker Evans (Photographer), John Szarkowski (Introduction)

A representative collection of Evans' photographs in which he records, in startling simplicity, the plight of the urban and rural poor over forty years

Genres: Photography, Art

190 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1971

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

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admire this book, but I can't say I really enjoyed it a lot.

I read it (meaning: read the interesting introduction and looked at all the photos) while I was finishing up The Lord of the Rings, and it made an interesting contrast.

One of my responses to All Things Hobbit is an almost painful desire for a cozy, quiet, well-appointed library or living room . . . oh, and why not bedroom, kitchen, hallways, and every other room while I'm at it! It's the one slightly suspect aspect of LOTR -- life probably hasn't ever been like it is for the Hobbits; it's a lovely dream world, and, ironically, it's only salvaged and made approachable by Sauron's reign of terror. Otherwise, it would be an annoying and cloying little fairy tale.

So while I'm longing for a few expensive leather armchairs, set upon Persian rugs that cover the entire floor, with a nice fireplace and some tea and scones . . . oh, and lots and lots of beautiful books . . . then along comes Walker Evans. I thought I liked Walker Evans because of the simplicity of his photos, but I should know better. Simplicity is never so simple. Hobbits are humble and simple, yes . . . but Evans's photos give lie to the wishful thinking that simpler, less material lives are necessarily better than obscene American overconsumption. In the photos here, some of which have a simple beauty, it mostly seems like squalor.

I couldn't quit looking at the photographs in detail, and of all the books of photographs I have, this is the one that I'm keeping . . . but it bothers me. There's one of a woman perhaps my age (but probably quite a lot younger) who is wearing a sort of dress that tents out and has a huge rent in the front -- a "dress" that looks more like a tarp with holes for head and arms than a dress -- and she's looking at the camera with, if not nobility, dignity. But here we see abject poverty, so stark that it's hard to put yourself in the setting, even though I tried.

I kept this book. I'll look at it again. And it's a good reminder that "noble poverty" is probably more hogwash than anything else. It's possible to have little and yet enough to have a more fulfilling life than your average consumption-obsessed American; but most of these photos peel back the curtain so that we see the ugliness and hopelessness of extreme poverty.

This is a keeper, and I'll look at it again, possibly many times.

[Arjuna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a big fan. Atget is another level.