'Looking is harder than it looks' is the thing I remember most from Baldwin Lee's presentation. It doesn't seem like it would make a lot of sense but in the context of the exhibit it does. Walker Evans was incredibly precise in his work, capturing little details that entirely shaped his photos that others may not have noticed. Things such as taking a photo of the bed, but showing the dirtiness of it with the flies and stains that others may not have focused on, or the display of cardboard pictures over cardboard boxes nailed to a wall for insulation are examples of that precision. I think the photo that sticks out most in my mind was the picture of the sign shop. It seems to be straight on, but as Lee pointed out the doors and windows are not centered with the columns meaning it was actually shot from an angle. This was done so that you could see the letters s,i,g and s that signaled this grandiose building that had been designed for someone who probably thought he was something pretty special had been turned into a sign shop.
I think the other thing that really stuck out to me was the repetition almost in some of Evans's photos such as two similar pictures of two very different fireplaces. I think it's interesting to see the different places such similar photos were taken in. Perhaps the most intriguing thing about this display to me is that Evans never went back to these places, and never wanted to meet the people he photographed or their relatives in later years. The fact that he didn't send them a copy of the book he photographed them for was also interesting to me. I can't figure out why he didn't do it, but it seems very rude to profit off of their photos and not at least give them the final version of the product.