Walker Evans

Burroughs Family, Alabama, Black and White Portrait Photography, Edition 44/75

1936

Walker Evans's primary subjects were poor Americans found in rural settings, roadside stands, cheap cafes, simple bedrooms, and small-town main streets. He was drawn to capturing people when “their guard is down, and the mask is off.”

The Great Depression years of 1935–36 were some of the peak years for Evans's photography. During those important years Evans honed his skills of observation: “Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.”

Evans's iconic images of small-town barbers, churches and cemeteries reveal a deep respect for the common man. In addition to the iconic Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, a book of photos by Walker Evans and text by American writer James Agee, published in 1941, Evans's book First and Last included the Burroughs Family photographs.

From the first day he turned to his camera, Evans brought literature, lyricism, irony and storytelling to the art of photography.

"Leaving aside the mysteries and the inequities of human talent, brains, taste and reputations, the matter of art in photography may come down to this: it is the capture and projection of the delights of seeing; it is the defining of observation full and felt," Evans said.

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