Walker Evans was an American Photographer. He was born on November 3rd, 1903 in St. Louis, Missouri. He was best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration, documenting the effects of the Great Depression. He graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover Massachusetts and studied French literature for a year at Williams College. He then dropped out and spent a year in Paris. He then returned to the United States to join the art crowd in New York City. His closest friends were John Cheever, Hart Crane and Lincoln Kirstein.
Walker Evans took up photography in 1928 and in 1933 he was assigned to photograph in Cuba for the publisher of Carleton Beals’ book, The Crime of Cuba. His overall goal as a photographer was to make pictures that were “literate, authoritative and transcendent.”
In 1935, he spent two months on a fixed-term photographic campaign for the RA (Resettlement Administration) in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. He continued to do photographic work for the RA from October on, and that’s when he decided to do photographic work for the Farm Security Administration.
In 1936, Walker still worked for the Farm Security Administration and he and writer James Agee were sent by Fortune magazine on an assignment to Hale County, Alabama. This photographic assignment was for a story that the magazine opted not to run. During his stay there, he stayed with three, white, tenant families in southern Alabama during The Great Depression. Walker took pictures of the families and their emotional looks from the depression.
After the depression he went on to work for Time-Life and then he began photographing in color at Fortune.
Walker Evans died on April 10th, 1975 in New Haven, Connecticut.
Walker Evans’ genres were documentarian and photojournalist. These genres were meant to reveal a piece of history. His work was a portrait of America. Walker Evans had very interesting style to his photos. When he was younger he made his photos really busy, but as he got older they started to become more minimal. He used black and white photography to capture America. His photos were mostly dark and many were angular. Many of the photos were of buildings with angular and geometric lines. These buildings were run-down and looked deserted. He also focused on signage and people as his subjects. They were often photographed together. There were strong lines in his work. Some of his photos were crisp, but most had many shadows which give them a darker and sadder tone. His photos were a reflection of the times. He showed a damaged world and desperate times in his shots of The Great Depression. For example, his piece titled, “Truck and Sign,” even showed men loading a sign that said, “Damaged” onto a truck that said, “Globe.”
The composition of his work allowed us to see the deeper meaning that he was intending.
End Notes:
Photo 1 - http://www.danthewoodsman.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/800px-walker_evans_1937-021.jpg
Quote 1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker_Evans
Photo 2 - http://www.masters-of-photography.com/images/full/evans/evans_hale_county.jpg
Photo 3 - http://albertoalonso.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/trodd-walker-evans-01.jpg
Photo 4 - http://www.luminous-landscape.com/images2/damage-we.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment