How Did Walker Evans Contribute To Photography

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Walker Evans’ influence on photography during the second half of the 20th century was perhaps greater than that of any other figure. His most characteristic pictures show quotidian American life during the second quarter of the century, especially through the description of its vernacular architecture, its outdoor advertising, the beginnings of its automobile culture and its domestic interiors. Walker Evans, the son of a successful advertising executive, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on 3rd November 1903. Evans's scattered recollections he would recall that around 1919 or 1920, when he was sixteen, he had attended the Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania. After his graduation from the Phillips Academy, Andover, MA. He then studies at literature at Williams College for one year and takes several jobs in New York City. After several years later, Evans began his photography. Taking it very seriously, when he returned to the United States. With a borrowed Leica and a hand held rolled camera, Evans started to become focused with all the things there were to be had out of the camera. He was very obsessive about his photography. In he 1930's a few of his images were to be illustrated in a book by Carleton Beal's book " The Crime of Cuba and The Bridge" by Hart Crane. Walker Evans was hired to be a part of a team of …show more content…

His belief was that of the photographer would have the responsibility to record reeality, no matter how harsh the job is. Evans decided to find work for Fortune magazine with James Agee, so he went to take a leave of absence for the FSA. With that both Evans and Agee did a documentary on sharecropper families in Alabama, in which Fortune denied publishing. FSA decided to produce the images later in the book called "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men", his images make up the most compelling and most famous collection of his