Walker Evans

Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975)

American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression.

Developed his own evocative but more reticent notions of realism, of the spectator's role, and of the poetic resonance of ordinary subjects.

Answered a personal need to distill the essence of American life from the simple and the ordinary. His photographs of roadside architecture, rural churches, small-town barbers, and cemeteries reveal a deep respect for the neglected traditions of the common man and secured his reputation as America's preeminent documentarian.

He said that his goal as a photographer was to make pictures that are "literate, authoritative, transcendent”.

"The guard is down and the mask is off," he remarked. "Even more than in lone bedrooms (where there are mirrors), people's faces are in naked repose down in the subway."