Walker Evans

The photographer I chose to do my report on is a man by the name of Walker Evans. He was born on November 4th, 1903 in St. Louis, Missouri. He was from a wealthy family and attended the Andover Academy as well as Williams College studying literature. He didn’t finish his studies. Instead he left school and moved to New York. It was here that he found himself socializing in the art and literary community. He was associated with many well known writers, poets and artists and became close friends Evans became interested in photography sometime around 1928 which ultimately led to lifelong passionate career. In 1933 he spent some time Cuba where he photographed the rebellion against the dictator that ran the country. After that he took on a job with the Resettlement Association and the Farm Security Administration where for the FSA he was sent on an assignment to Alabama with writer James Agee. This assignment led to, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, a book written by Agee and illustrated with Evan’s pictures, being published in 1941. The book was about 3 families that the two studied on their assignment together. In 1938 walker had his very first exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, this was also the first time an exhibition had been dedicated to only one photographer at the museum. That same year walker also took to photographing the subways in New York. These pictures eventually were brought together in a book titled, Many Are Called. In 1945 walker went to work writing for Time Magazine and later became an editor at Walker died on April 10th, 1975 at the age of 71. When he died his work was given to the Museum of Modern Art in New York with the exception of about a thousand pictures which are now at the library of congress. The reason I chose to do my report on Walker Evans is because I have always really liked his work but the only thing I really knew about him was that he traveled around the country during the time of the Great Depression