Walker Evans, (born November 3, 1903, St. Louis, U.S.-died April 10, 1975, Connecticut), American photographer whose influence on the evolution of ambition during the second half of the 20th century was perhaps greater than that of any other figure. He rejected the prevailing highly aestheticized view of artistic photography, of which was the most visible proponent, and constructed instead an artistic strategy based on the poetic resonance of common but exemplary facts, clearly described. His most characteristic pictures show quotidian American life during the second quarter of the century, especially through the description of its , its outdoor advertising, the beginnings of its automobile culture , and its domestic interiors.

Early life and work

In contrast to the aggressive intrusiveness that even in the 1930s characterized much photographic reportage, Evans’s pictures from this project exhibit an almost courtly reticence to intrude into the most private aspects of his subjects’ lives. And yet, in spite of the absence of vulgar prying, the viewer thinks he knows the so-called Ricketts, Woods, and Gudgers better than any star in the tabloids, perhaps partly because they seem collaborators in the design of their portraits. Perhaps Evans understood that the meagre thinness of the sharecroppers’ lives was rendered most clearly when they had dressed themselves up in their Sunday best.

8x10 inch camera. He wrote that his task as a photographer was to take photographs that are "literate, authoritative, transcendent". Many of his works are in the permanent collection of museums and have been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example.

Biography

Farm Protection Administration

There have been speculations that Evans was the inspiration for Andy Warhol's portraits after the publication of "Portraits in the Underground" in Harper's Bazaar in March 1962. Evans began experimenting with self-portraits from a photo booth in New York in 1929, using them to separate his own artistic presence from of his imagery, longing for the true objectivity of what he later described as "the ultimate purity of the record method."

From the life of the first documentary photographer

the site continues the project “50 most important photographers of our time”. We will talk about photographers who had a great influence on the development of photographic art. About the authors who formed the concept of “modern photography” with their works. About the great masters of their craft, whose names and works are simply necessary to know. Today we will talk about the origin of documentary photography and the American photographer Walker Evans.

Of course, we are not going to go into a long discussion about the nature of documentary photography and try to come up with a precise definition of this term. During the 20th century, this was done by culturologists, visual anthropologists, philosophers, art historians - and, finally, photographers. They are doing it now. Therefore, within the framework of this material, we simply propose to understand documentary photography as a way to reliably reflect the surrounding social reality.

So Walker Evans started taking photographs in the 1930s, filming the uprising in Cuba. Thanks to these shootings, he quickly becomes a respected photographer, gets acquainted with Ernest Hemingway and other prominent cultural figures. World fame brings him work for the organization FSA - the administration of low-income farmers. Together with two other great photographers Dorothea Lang and Russell Lee, Evans went on a long journey through the United States to document the condition of the peasantry. Looking at his photographs of dilapidated farms, at the portraits of farmers whose faces express only detachment and sadness, one can still feel the full depth of the American Great Depression even today.

In 1938, Evans had a solo exhibition at the New York Museum of Modern Art. It was called ‘Walker Evans: American Photographs’. By the way, this was the first exhibition in this museum dedicated to the work of one photographer, all exhibitions before that were collective in one way or another.

Also in 1938, Evans also took his first photographs on the New York subway, working with a hidden camera hidden under his coat. Using a hidden camera technique, the photographer would get dangerously close to strangers, invading their comfort zone. So, Evans becomes one of the founders of not only documentary, but also street photography. Taking advantage of the fact that the subjects of the shooting do not see him, the author managed to authentic facial expressions, gestures and facial expressions of ordinary Americans. Later, these works were collected in the form of a book, published in 1966 under the title 'Many are Called'.

Evans, like a true documentarian, does not try to give his photographs excessive emotionality. Magnificently applying the rules of exposure, trying to operate with symbols and signs, he created a general portrait of the average American during the Great Depression.