Baldwin Lee's explanation behind the exposition of Walker Evans' and James Agee's "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" was interesting and explicative.To hear from someone who knew and worked with Evans personally gave more information on this series of photographs of the 3 Alabama families representing the faces of the depression of the 1930s.Even though Evans was recording the story to mark a moment in American history, he was also getting paid to take these pictures, and manipulated the them to his desired outcome, according to Lee. This was surprising to me, since we look at these pictures and think "This is how it really was," however now, I'm not too sure about how it really was. I understand the poverty was real, but if they weren't positioned by the photographer, how would the subjects really want to be portrayed?
To my surprise, Evans did not want to revisit the families that he photographed, or even come close to the area in which he shot the pictures. That makes me wonder if he was taking these pictures only to make money. Like a shoot-it and leave type of deal. No copies of the book were even given to the family which I don't think is fair. Maybe they would have wanted the choice of getting one.
Lee stressed that Evans was not only a photographer, but also a writer. Evans tried to capture a moment within a picture, where there is a hidden meaning even behind the simplest objects. Walker Evans carefully expressed ideas through his photographs, stating "Looking is harder than it looks." What he means by that, is that when viewing a piece of art, everything an artist does, either adding or subtracting, is for a reason. It could be accidental even, but everything has its purpose. It's just up to the viewer to recognize those elements.
Baldwin Lee took me by surprise. Judging from a photograph, I thought Lee was going to be a quiet shy artist. When he began speaking about his prior teacher, it was like Lee could talk forever. He drew you in to the conversation with his funny stories and wise tales of the past. While explaining Evans' work, Lee would show small close-ups of the picture and ask the audience to think outside the box, why would Evans capture the picture in that way? He was incredibly uplifting and comedic when speaking to him privately. While advancing my belief that all artists have incredible passions, Lee also encouraged questioning motives of teachers and learning when it comes to education. Nowadays receiving a higher education is a social norm. Studying art is also relatively new. Beginning after WWII, art wasn't just for the crazies and the people who expressed themselves differently in society, art was a creative media that should be studied. Can you learn art from sitting in a classroom?
In some cases yes, but mostly its all about experiences, and trial-and-error. No one can grade you on your own way of intrepreting things, it just wouldn't be fair. Baldwin Lee spoke about his unique way of teaching his class, at the University of Tennessee, in which he has the exact same beliefs. If Lee was to teach a history of photography class, " there would be no lecture times, no dates to remember or names to memorize, we would take field trips to Milan and Paris...then you wouldn't have to force yourself to remember the names, you would just remember them."
There is not enough words to put into sentences that would describe what I got out of meeting Baldwin Lee. As many different topics were thrown about in our conversations, he had another quote that I will never forget. He said, "If the walls are closing in on you, just walk out of the room." He said it so nonchalantly but to me took powerful meaning. It translated to me as: if you find yourself at a bend in the road, take the dangerous path, conquer your fears and shoot for the stars, there is nothing you can't do if you set your mind to it.
-Estelle Taquet
Images credited to : http://tnjn.com/2010/jan/28/baldwin-lee-talks-photography/
http://www.masters-of-photography.com/E/evans/evans_hale_county_full.html
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