Walker Evens is most notable for his work with the Farm Security Administration where he was commissioned to document the lives of poor sharecropper families during the Great Depression. Although his assignment was unpublished at the time, it gave Evans the chance to capture Alabama Tenant Farmer Wife, which remains one of the most recognizable photographs of all time. Among this depiction of a struggling nation, Evans shared an unbiased yet conflicting view into the wide spectrum of 20th Century America. This collection titled 'Walker Evans: American Photographs' would be shown at the Museum of Modern Art in 1938 and was the first time an exhibition was devoted to the work of a single photographer. Evans is credited with helping elevate photography as a true art form, and to that, we as photographers owe a great amount of respect to him.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the American Photographs exhibition. In honor of this celebration the Museum of Modern art is bringing the book back into print along with a reprise installation of the collection. The show presents over fifty of his iconic images and is running up until January 26, 2014. Ye with even a remote interest in the history of photography should take a look if you are in the New York area. Click here for more info.
