Your favorite Walker Evans image?

Bill Mitchell

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Back in the medieval days, when I had disposable income and was collecting photographs, I never bought a Walker Evans print because I couldn't decide which one I liked enough. Then he died and prices went through the roof. Now that I can no longer afford any, I know exactly which one I'd buy. How about you? What is your "most collectible" WE image?
 

Joe Lipka

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Used to be that the Library of Congress would sell you a genuine fiber based print made from a Walker Evans negative he made for the FSA. Since his most famous work was done for the FSA, you really have a pretty huge selection. The price is almost a give away. Another way to stick one to the gallery system.

I am particularly fond of the Hale County Alabama photographs.
 

ann

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they still sell the work, as well as many others.

I have about 1/2 dozen and it is hard to say which i love the most.
 

Bill Hahn

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One picture leads to another...

I like "Girl on Fulton Street" (1929) but have a liking for "42nd Street" (1929) - the woman in the fur coat standing before cars and stairs. Look carefully at the stairs - you'll see the famous "Royal Baking Powder Steps"....
 

André E.C.

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"Burroughs Family Cabin", Hale County, Alabama, 1936, is one favourite, but the ONE is, "Barber Shop", Atlanta 1936.

Cheers

André
 
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Bill Mitchell

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My choice(s) are 1)Citizen of Havana - a street picture of a very tall, lean, dapper guy in a white suit, and 2) Cemetery Scene (Bethlehem, Pa), with a large cross in the foreground, row houses in the mid ground, and steel mills in the distance.
 

Bill Hahn

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That cemetery more recently.

Bill Mitchell said:
My choice(s) are ... and 2) Cemetery Scene (Bethlehem, Pa), with a large cross in the foreground, row houses in the mid ground, and steel mills in the distance.
Click to expand...

Shaun O'Boyle, a talented photographer (living in Western Massachusetts) has taken pictures in that cemetery in recent years:

http://www.oboylephoto.com/steel/steel2.htm#top

In the summer of 1966 I attended an NSF seminar at Lehigh University, and I remember riding up that street with the houses on one side the hillside cemetery on the other. I wasn't interested in photography at the time, and more than 30 years later I recognized the scene from the Evans photography....
 

lee

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I got to see a Walker Evans exhibit at the Houston Museum of Fine Art several years ago. They had a lot of images. The images were very well seen the presentation was very poor. Walker was not a very accomplished printer in my way of thinking. Sorta Photo 102. But it was nice to see the images.

lee\c
 

bill schwab

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Bill Mitchell said:
...with a large cross in the foreground, row houses in the mid ground, and steel mills in the distance.
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If you are ever in Bethlehem, PA., go to the spot where Walker made this shot. It is very easy to find and was somewhat of a religious experience for me! You park on a little side street, walk about 10 paces up the hill into the cemetery, look left and there it is. I probably parked in the same spot as he did. Hardly a thing has changed aside from the demolition of most of the blast furnaces in the background. It reminds me of that Weston quote, "If it is more than 500 feet from the car, there's not a picture."

Bill
 

bill schwab

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lee said:
Walker was not a very accomplished printer in my way of thinking.
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This is unfortunately true, but some of his vintage prints shine as well. I don't believe he was a very patient man in the darkroom, but passionate about shooting. A friend has several of his vintage prints and a couple are downright atrocious. Uneven fading and blotchiness I would equate with poor fixation and/or washing. Such a shame.

I still love the guy though!

Bill
 

Christopher Nisperos

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billschwab said:
Evans is one of my favorites, but if I could own 1 image, it would have to be the Saratoga street scene done out his hotel window in the rain.
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I'll second that. I don't know why, but the first time I saw that print (at an exhibition in San Francisco years ago), I was mezmerized.

The composition is so darned simple. Maybe that's the secret of its charm?
 
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Bill Mitchell

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Christopher Nisperos said:
I'll second that. I don't know why, but the first time I saw that print (at an exhibition in San Francisco years ago), I was mezmerized.

The composition is so darned simple. Maybe that's the secret of its charm?
Click to expand...

Interesting story about that particular image. It was taken from Evans hotel room balcony. He was in Saratoga with Lincoln Kirsten who spotted the image and made Evans get out of bed, set up his camera, and take the picture.
 

Struan Gray

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Bill Mitchell said:
Struan, what was your second Walker Evans choice (by Paul Strand)?
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Truckman's House. I was thinking of it as the best expression of the composition and layering found in the Bethlehem cross photo. It probably is anyway, Strand was better at that formal aesthetic look.

I was recently reading about how detailed the instructions were that Stryker handed out to his photographers. Evans must have had a very independent streak to have held out against the endless, over-determined injunctions to produce kitsch. About the only easily-read photo of his I know is the leaning shed in Tupelo.
 
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Bill Mitchell

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Struan Gray said:
Truckman's House. .
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Interesting choice, Struan. This is an image which is almost always reproduced in every collection of Strand's work. Yet it has never appealed to me. Is it also your favorite Stand photograph?
 

Struan Gray

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I haven't seen enough of Strand's work to say if I have a favourite or not. I don't like the pictures from the Hebrides at all, but I do like a lot of the more formal exercises in composition. Wall Street is great. The Fence leaves me a little cold. I came across Truckman's House in a history of photography and loved it before reading the caption and finding out that it was by Strand.

I know that probably sounds a bit odd for someone as interested in photographic history as I am, but as an autodidact in a wasteland of poor libraries I rely on the net a lot, and Strand's present eclipse makes it hard to find much of his work online. Minor White is another giant of US photography who is in a similar position. The signature images are easy to find, but not enough to get a good feel for their work as a whole.
 
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