FMP Contextual - Walker Evans

Walker Evans was an American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration, documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans's work from the FSA period uses the large-format, 8x10-inch camera. He said that his goal as a photographer was to make pictures that are "literate, authoritative, transcendent". A lot of his works is in the collections of museums such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art and George Eastman House.

In 1935, Evans spent two months at first on a fixed-term photographic campaign for the Resettlement Administration in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. From October on, he continued to do photography work for the RA and later on the Farm Security Administration, primarily in the Southern United States.

In the summer of 1936, he and writer James Agee were sent by Fortune Magazine on to Hale County, Alabama, for a story the magazine later opted not to run. In 1941, Evans's photographs and Agee's text detailing their stay with three white tenant families in southern Alabama during the Great Depression, were published as the groundbreaking book 'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men'. Its detailed account of three farming families is said to 'paint a deeply moving portrait of rural poverty'. Noting a similarity to the Beals' book, the critic Janet Malcolm, in her 1980 book Diana & Nikon: Essays on the Aesthetic of Photography, has pointed out the contradiction between a kind of anguished dissonance in Agee's prose and the quiet, magisterial beauty of Evans's photographs of sharecroppers.

Although Walker Evans worked mainly with portraits/social documentary, he's produced some fantastic urban landscapes, some of which can be seen below. Personally, I prefer Evans' landscapes to his portraits (although I do like his portraits). Walker Evans composes his photographs quite well, and I think the angles he shoots from make his photographs more than any other qualities.

This is one of the few I don't like, unlike the other examples, the frame is very full and 'busy'. There's not one clear subject because there's so much stuff in the photograph, it doesn't draw attention and focus to any point specifically, which in my opinion is it's downfall. Although, I like the smooth greys created from the exposure, there's a massive range of tones in the photograph, but the light on the houses is almost too harsh. 

I prefer this photograph massively to the previous one, because it looks a lot more composed and thought out. The promotional posters instantly catch your eye, because they're bold and central, unlike the earlier photograph, which in my opinion had no structure. The frame perfectly fits in the two houses, with a small amount of pale grey sky bordering and framing the buildings, whilst the posters run straight through the middle. I think much more thought has been put into taking this photograph, as the composition has clearly been carefully positioned. 

This is another good example of Evans' work, the subject has been kept centred, which draws attention straight away. I like this photograph aswell mainly because of the composition, keeping the frame 'neat and tidy' looks a lot better than Walker's earlier, much busier image. Another positive point to Walker Evans' work is that he consistently produces technically good photographs, they're are all correctly exposed (both the negative and when printed), and have a great tonal range to them, showing a massive contrast of greys.

Again, this photograph is technically well made, with a nice soft look to it. The grey tones make the photograph a lot better, I don't think it would look half as good in colour. Walker consistently makes photographs to this standard, using his large format 8x10 inch camera.