Happy Birthday, Walker Evans!

Walker Evans

(born: Nov. 3, 1903 - died: April 10,1975) 

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.

(born Nov. 3, 1903, St. Louis, Mo., U.S.—died April 10, 1975, New Haven, Conn.)  He rejected the prevailing highly aestheticized view of artistic photography, of which Alfred Stieglitz 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 vernacular architecture, its outdoor advertising, the beginnings of its automobile culture, and its domestic interiors. 

To find out more about Walker Evans Click on the link below:
Walker Evans Biography

A Miner''s Home, vicinity Morgantown, West Virginia. 1935

untitled (Barber shop interior, Atlanta, Georgia), March 1936© Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art

Shack and Ice Machine, Old Lyme, Connecticut, April 1973. (©Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).