Profile of the author, online design portfolio & contact details can be found here

Wednesday, 7 November 2012

Walker Evans

Walker Evans (3/11/03 – 10/04/75) was an American photographer who rose to prominence largely through his body of work documenting the effects of the Great Depression on rural America.

From an affluent family, Evans used both his experience on Wall Street as well as his position within the New York 'in' crowd to cement a position for himself as an important documenter of the issues of crime, poverty, and economic decline for his generation.

In the summer of 1936 Evans and writer James Agee were sent by Fortune magazine on assignment. While the subsequent story was not run, the pair published the groundbreaking 'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men' in 1941, documenting rural farming from a person and deep perspective of three families.

Evan's most interesting works are perhaps the result of his technique to photograph his subjects surreptitiously through the use of low angles or hidden cameras. The following examples of his work are taken from his journeys on the New York subway:






...