These Were the Outtakes

In Lee's account of Walker Evans, he noted a couple of things that Evans had said to him. Lee spoke of something in particular that Evans had said to him while working with his negatives. During his time spent working with Evans, Evans told Lee that his technique was to simple "expose the hell out of it, and you will get a picture." It is quite astonishing to hear the words of the artist himself, which are so blunt and forthcoming. The remarkable thing is that from these words, one might assume that Evans' opinion of his own work was more like a common person's opinion of their own photography, rather than an artist's opinion of their own work. The fact that he chose common people and common places to photograph, coupled with his apparent nonchalant demeanor towards his art gives the viewer, in my opinion, something more real to connect with. His images of the Burroughs family portrayed common people, stricken by the Great Depression, presenting the audience with images they could clearly understand. Another thing that Lee said that was surprising was how he titled all of the photographs on display in the gallery. He called them the "outtakes," the photos that Evans had discarded, choosing to keep the others for himself. This gave us yet another interesting way to interpret Walker Evans as a photographer.

Evans' portraits and images of mundane things are important to American culture because of the challenge that they bring to the viewer. Lee spoke of Evans once saying that "looking is harder than it looks." His images of buildings and furniture appear to be simple and bland at first. Yet, when we take a closer look at the details that are captured in his images, and come to understand why Evans thought that it was an important image to capture. His work dares the viewer to take a look at everyday things and faces, and understand that there is always more to an image than what is apparent.