Walker Evans
1903–1975

Introduction

Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' New Deal work uses the large format, 8 × 10-inch (200×250 mm) view camera. He said that his goal as a photographer was to make pictures that are "literate, authoritative, transcendent".

Many of his works are in the permanent collections of museums and have been the subject of retrospectives at such institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the George Eastman Museum.

Wikidata identifier

Q363308

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Introduction

Born 3 November 1903; died 10 April 1975. In 1928, Evans worked as a freelance photographer in Boston, Massachusetts and New York City, New York. In 1930 Evans undertook a project to photograph popular housing and Victorian architecture in New England. In 1935, Evans travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana to photograph southern plantation architecture. From 1935 to 1937, Evans worked as a staff photographer for the Farm Security Administration. In 1935, he documented the coal mines and industrial towns in Pennsylvania and West Virginia as well as the effects of flooding in Arkansas and Tennessee in 1936-1937. In 1937, Evans undertook a project with James Agee to photograph the lives of tenent farm families in Hale County, Alabama. The project was turned into a book entitled "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men". In 1943, Evans joined the staff of Time Magazine. From 1945 to 1965, Evans acted as editor and photographer for Fortune Magazine. During the 1950s Evans began to focus on American industrial landscapes.

Country of birth

United States

Roles

Artist, author, lecturer, painter, photographer, writer

ULAN identifier

500012076

Names

Walker Evans

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Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed April 16, 2024.