The Influence of Postcards on Walker Evan's Works

Walker Evans spent a good portion of his life collecting postcards. He had collected over 9,000 by the time of his death in 1975. He categorized and stored the postcards under headings such as “Street Scenes,” “Fancy Architecture,” and “Curiosities.” Evans argued that it was the ordinariness of these photographs taken by unknowns that told the story of the United States best. As far as his own work is concerned, Evans is famous for refining documentary photography. He believed in an artless style based on simplicity, and that belief stemmed from the picture postcards that he devoted his life to collecting. (Boylan 39-42) After discovering Evan’s reverence for postcards, I think their influence on his work becomes very clear. Many of Evan’s photographs in the traveling exhibition Let Us Now Praise Famous Men depict townscapes. These images of unremarkable houses and storefronts are as matter of fact as early postcards, which were simple, often poorly composed, depictions of rather ordinary places—no one tried too hard to make them look pretty (Hine 42). These honest, straightforward photographs have a certain draw to them. It is easier to get lost viewing a photograph that looks believable. While elaborately artistic photographs are beautiful to look at, their stunning “once-in-a-lifetime” quality is not always relatable. The fact of the matter is that real life is more often than not extremely ordinary. Although tough to put a finger on, I think it is the candid quality of benign subjects that is so captivating about Evan’s townscapes. Walker Evens is known for defining the documentation style of photography. His shots aim to be detached and objective. It is odd to think that this style, so well-associated with Evans, was adapted from early postcards. These one-cent commodities produced mostly by amateurs were unceremoniously cranked out to feed a fad, but ended up being a basis for the famous works of Walker Evans.

Works Cited

Boylan, Gabriel J. “The Eye That Collects.” The Nation. 23 March 2009: 39-42.

Hine, Thomas. “America in 3 by 5.” Magazine Antiques. Feb. 2009: 41-45.

~Bailee Krull