Walker Evans, American, 1903-1975
Walker Evans began photographing seriously in 1928. After returning from Europe at the age of twenty-four he found himself in New York where his passion for photography was ignited. While experimenting with different photographic styles, Evans created images of a variety of subjects from very abstract architectural work to what at the time was cutting edge street photography. He made many images that many people felt paved the way for future photographers such as Robert Frank and Gary Winogrand.
In the early 1930?s Evans moved on to a new project which would help develop his documentary style. He spent time in New England photographing Victorian homes for an exhibition to coincide with the publication of a book on 19th century architecture. This is where Evans first began using a large format camera. Later Evans was asked by publisher J.P. Lippencott to produce photographs to illustrate a book about Cuba by radical journalist Carleton Beals. Evans spent 3 weeks in Havana creating images which continued to solidify his style, but the work that would define Evans and forever place him in the consciousness of the American public was soon to follow.
After a period of time spent photographing throughout the South Evans began photographing for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in 1935. Evans, along with other photographers like Dorothea Lange and Russell Lee, was hired by the government to document the lives of the American farmer during the 1930s. In his photographs of crumbling farm towns and faces etched with despair and hope we can still see and feel today the depths of The Great Depression. This work was so powerful that it helped to educate an entire nation about the plight of the American farmer.
While photographing for the FSA Evans also had several bodies of work published in Fortune magazine and this was to begin an association out of which would come his largest body of work. In 1941 when America was gearing up its war effort, Evans was asked by Fortune to photograph the many factories making arms and munitions in Bridgeport, CT. The Bridgeport series was stylistically reminiscent of his earlier street photographs made in New York, but like his deeply moving work done for the FSA Evans managed to show us the complex human face of the American worker. Evans stayed with Fortune until 1965 when he took a teaching position at Yale University. He continued to teach, photograph, exhibit and publish his work until his death in 1975.
Bibliography:
Lesley K. Baier, Walker Evans at Fortune, 1945-1965, Wellesley, MA: Wellesley College Museum, 1978.
Michael Brix, Birgit Mayer, Walker Evans America, New York: Rizzoli, 1990.
Andrei Codrescu, Walker Evans: Signs, Los Angeles: Getty Trust Publications, 1998.
Ellen Fleurov, Walker Evans: Simple Secrets, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1998.
Peter Galassi, Walker Evans and Company, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2000.
Sarah Greenough, Walker Evans: Subways and Streets, Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1991.
Maria Morris Hambourg, Jeff L. Rosenheim, Douglas Eklund, Mia Fineman, Walker Evans, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Judith Keller, Walker Evans: The Getty Museum Collection, Los Angeles: Getty Trust Publications, 1995.
Lincoln Kirstein, Walker Evans: American Photographs, New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1938.
Rodger Kingston, Walker Evans in Print: An Illustrated Bibliography, R.P. Kingston Photographs, 1995.
Jerald C. Maddox, Walker Evans: Photographs for the Farm Security Administration, 1935-1938, Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1973.
James R. Mellow, Hilton Kramer, Walker Evans, New York: Basic Books, 1999.
Gilles Mora, John T. Hill, Walker Evans: Havana 1933, New York: Pantheon Books, 1989.
Gilles Mora, Walker Evans, New York: Photo Poche, 1990.
Giles Mora, John T. Hill, Walker Evans: The Hungry Eye, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1993.
Christian Peterson, Walker Evans, Minneapolis, Minnesota: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2003.
Robert Plunket, Walker Evans: Florida, Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2000.
Belinda Rathbone, Walker Evans: A Biography, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995.
Jeff L. Rosenheim, Douglas Eklund, Unclassified: A Walker Evans Anthology, New York: Scalo Zurich in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998.
Luc Sante, Walker Evans 55, New York: Phaidon Press Limited, 2001.
John Szarkowski, Walker Evans, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1971.
Jerry L. Thompson, Walker Evans at Work, New York: Harper & Row, 1982.
John T. Hill, Alan Trachtenberg, Walker Evans: Lyric Documentary, Gottingen, Germany: Steidl Publishers, 2006.
Matthew Wysocki, Walker Evans: Artist - In - Residence, The Hopkins Center, Hanover, New Hampshire: Dartmouth College, 1972.
