“You talk about simplicity. When I first made photographs, they were too plain to be considered art and I wasn't considered an artist. I didn't get any attention at all. The people who looked at my work thought, well, that's just a snapshot of the backyard. Privately I knew otherwise and through stubbornness stayed with it.” – Walker Evans
The book “let us Now Praise Famous Men” came from the photographs and thoughts of Walker Evans and James Agee. The book stemmed from a magazine article the men were writing. The two men spent weeks with mainly three white sharecroppers in the rural south. Having seen Evans pictures in class and online, I didn’t understand why they were so special. Even the book did not do very well after it was published, but has since won high praises and is used to study both journalism and photographic innovation. But as I listened to Baldwin Lee speak I began to like Walkers photographs more and more. Baldwin Lee is a professor of art at the University of Tennessee. He has many permanent collections and has won numerous awards for his photography. Much of his success has come from learning firsthand about photography with Walker Evans, were he began work as a dark room assistant.
Walker Evans was born into a wealthy family in St. Louis. He graduated from Phillips Academy and studied French literature at Williams College. As Lee stated, literature is Walker Evans true love. Which I thought was interesting and can see the correlation between literature and photography. Although literature is left open to interpretation, it is much more straight forward than photography. When you see a photograph it is the viewer who has to decipher what the photographer’s message is. Before listening to Lee speak I walked through the gallery to get a look at the photographs, after checking them out I was impressed but many of the pictures looked so simple I didn’t understand the meaning behind them. “looking is harder than it looks” is what Evans stated. He was very specific in what his pictures were supposed to mean. One of the most interesting photographs Lee discussed was the sign shop in Mississippi with the ornate ionic pillars. The way Evans manipulated the camera and angle to make the door off centered and block out the letter “N” in signs was very interesting. Another image I really enjoyed was the one of the poverty stricken families in their home. There were many things which caught my eye in this photograph. The first thing I noticed was how poor they really were. The wife and mother had very dirty feet, and a young girl was standing with her arm over the baseboard of a bed, which made it look like she was holding a crutch. These subtleties are what make the image so powerful. Another thing which Lee stated was that Evans never talked to those families again and wouldn’t talk to their relatives. I don’t understand why this is the case but I assume he or their families feel he has taken advantage of them for his own gain. Another fascinating thing we discussed was how one minor adjustment can change the whole meaning of a picture. The picture of the woman standing against the wood side of a house looks like she is reserved and angry; there are two versions of this picture though. In the second picture Evans uses the flash bulb which illuminates her eyes which makes her look happier and more open.
The main message I got from Lees visit is that “looking is harder than it looks” before listening to Lee I would have passed off some photographs I didn’t like at first glance. Now I will spend more time and try to understand what the photographers message is to the viewer.
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=1634
http://baldwinlee.com/about.htm
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