Walker Evans

by James R. Mellow

Walker Evans (1903–1975) is best known as one of the leading documentary photographers of the Depression Era, and for his photographs of Alabama sharecroppers in James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. His FSA photographs have become icons in the American consciousness, and are perhaps the most influential body of photographic work in this century.But Evans was not the propagandist for social causes he was presumed to be; he was, instead, a fastidious observer, recording, simply, the way things were. His instinctive aversion to “artiness” contrasted him sharply from his senior Alfred Stieglitz, and his immediate contemporary, Ansel Adams. Evans’ eye took him toward the dusty particulars, the backroads of American life, its rundown mill towns, roadside stands, torn movie posters and advertisements for departed minstrel shows. He developed a peculiarly American vernacular, his particular trademark that makes an Evans photograph almost instantly recognizable.With unrestricted access to all of Evans’ diaries, letters, work logs and contact sheets, James R. Mellow has produced one of the most finely wrought portraits of a major American artist ever. Also, it is a deeply informed cultural history of the 1930s and ’40s and a lively account of friendships and influences with the likes of Lincoln Kirstein and James Agee.

Genres: Photography, Biography, Art, Nonfiction

656 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

James Robert Mellow was an American art critic and biographer.

Reviews

[Mikey B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the life story of American photographer Walker Evans. He was a photographer who shunned celebrity and photos of celebrities. He went, to play on the words of Robert Frost, for the less common photographs. He took photos of ordinary people – from tenant farmers in the Deep South to commuters in the New York subway. His landscape photos were not of spectacular scenes.

His parents supported him when he went to Paris in the 1920’s. He had aspirations of being a writer – but upon returning to the United States he drifted into freelance photography. He landed a job with one of the Roosevelt New Deal programs to take photos across the U.S. (it should be noted that many artists were encouraged and supported by the government). Later he landed a job with Fortune magazine which he kept for over 25 years.

The author died before the completion of his book, so we only get a summary of the life of Walker Evans from 1957 to 1975.

I particularly enjoyed the many photographs and the commentaries on them.

BUT many aspects irritated me about the writer.

There were many meandering digressions from the main topic, namely the life and photographs of Walker Evans. For example, he goes on and on about James Agee, a friend of Walker Evans. There are too many excerpts from the rejected “novels” of Walker Evans. It is obvious why these were not published.

We are constantly getting a lot of name-dropping. Was it necessary to be told the names of all attendees at a party, a dinner, a picnic...It is like the author is trying to impress us with “look at who I know”.

The author tends to disparage other photographers like Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and Margaret Bourke-White.

There was more than a hint of misogyny. Was it necessary to describe a woman in one photo as “fat”?

It was annoying for the author to have a lengthy discussion of a photo and not have it in the book.

This book needed an editor and should have been condensed. I give it 4 stars for the wonderful photos. The writing was 3 stars (or less). An end blurb calls the author “a supreme stylist and a master of biographical portraiture”. No.

To see more photos of Walker Evans
https://www.google.ca/search?q=walker...

[Davy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a phenomenal biography -- readable, insightful, touching without being too subjective. Which is important, because let's be honest: Walker Evans doesn't sound like the most likable dude ever. But he took great pictures, and he invented an entire world of photography that we're still taking advantage of and trying to figure out. Mellow was incredible writer and researcher, and the worst thing about this book -- and it's a doozy -- is that he didn't live to finish it. What we get is Walker Evans's life up to about 1956, shortly after he met and began working with Robert Frank. He was in his early 50s. On the one hand, this is mostly ok because he'd done all his really important work already. On the other hand, it sucks for me, because I'd really been looking forward to a full recounting of Evans's relationship with William Christenberry -- the Southern painter, sculptor, and photographer -- who is a favorite artist of mine. That meeting happened in 1961, I believe, so we didn't quite get there. It is a further disappointment that the editors neglected to mention Christenberry in the appendix (which includes some of Mellow's notes for the unfinished part of the book). Mellow has written about Christenberry's work before, and I can't imagine he intended to leave their relationship -- which was almost as important for Walker Evans as it was for the younger Christenberry -- entirely out of this book. Anyhow, you can't blame Mellow for any of that, and honestly, it's a testament to what he did finish that the thing was published in its incomplete form. If you're interested in photography, particularly photography in America, you can't pass this up. It is essential reading.

[Stephanie Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

WALKER EVANS, written by James R. Mellow, is the biography of the brilliant American photographer who captured the country in black and white stills, starting in the 1920s.
Mellow’s comprehensive 654 pages traces Evans’ life from birth in 1903 through 1955, where Mellow’s text abruptly ends. This is due to the untimely death of the author. A year-by-year summary of Evans’ life from 1957-1975 taken from Mellow’s notes follows, along with a list of footnotes, a ten-page list of credits for the included photos, a brief chronology, selected bibliography, and an index.
Walker Evans was a contemporary of Berenice Abbott, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Margaret Bourke-White, and Ansel Adams (whom he did not admire), and he seemed to be acquainted with just about everyone in the artistic elite circle of the day, whether they be photographers, writers, or painters. From drinking with Ernest Hemingway in Havana, to collaborating with poet/writer James Agee for LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN, his life was always intertwined with the who’s-who.
Having first aspired to be a writer, Evans left lots of notes, lists, and correspondence from which to extract the story of his life, and Mellow uses them to fine effect.
With Evans’ classic book, AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHS, being reissued in early 2009, now is a good time to learn about the man behind the camera.
I’m keeping this book! It is a great resource!
~Stephanie

[Mark Hussey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A shame indeed that Mellow died before he could finish this excellent biography. But it’s an illuminating record of a figure who deserves to be more widely known.

[Jonathan Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is unfinished: the author sadly died before completing the manuscript. So the section in continuous prose ends c. 1957, and everything after that until Evans's death in 1975 is presented in summary. There are also occasional repetitions in the earlier sections that suggest a manuscript in need of additional editing. It's as thorough on biographical detail as one could wish, without committing the sin of boring the reader with childhood anecdote and genealogy: the focus is rightly on the period in which the adult Evans was active as an artist. But it's not as insightful on Evans's photography as I'd hoped: there *are* plenty of insightful comments, but most of them are quotations from Evans himself, or contemporary critics like Lincoln Kirstein (whose instrumental role in advancing Evans's career at several crucial points is explained here). As is common for biographies authorised by the estate, it omits some of the more scurrilous second-hand material included in Rathbone's unauthorised biography, which doesn't soft-soap Evans's flaws as much as this one does. The flip side of this is that it's able to include many photographs by Evans, including many unpublished snapshots of friends, which are reproduced okay, although printing on uncoated paper limits both their contrast and sharpness. One might say that effectively ending in 1957 is no great loss, since most of Evans's most famous work was done by the early 1940s, and much of the latter half of his career was spent as an employee of Fortune magazine, and yet one of the roles of biography is to question such easy certitudes and re-evaluate underappreciated work. So the lack of any discussion of the burst of activity with a Polaroid SX-70 that Evans undertook in his last few years is a particular loss. Despite these several flaws, it's well-written and obviously based on thorough, careful research, effectively synthesised, so I've given it four stars.

As an addendum, I was glad to be reminded of the extent to which Evans encouraged younger photographers, and was in more than one case instrumental in securing them a Guggenheim grant: e.g. Helen Levitt, Robert Frank and Diane Arbus all benefitted from his support.

[JBP · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a 2/3 finished biography (Mellow died before he finished it) of one of my favorite photographers--Walker Evans. While I enjoyed it, I was hoping for way more discussion of Evans philosophy on photography or critical analysis of his style/work. There's lots of details on where and when Evans took photos but less of the technical aspects I was hoping for. I'll have to search out other Evans books for that as this was more of a straight up biography. Lots of photos included throughout the text.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A phenomenal photographer but the book was slow at times.

[Tim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Walker Evans was a phenomenal photographer. He deserves a better biographer.