I will be the first to say that I am not an artist and I truly don’t understand very much about the subject of art but Walker Evans pictures are really unique to me. The fact that on the surface his pictures look so basic, simple and in fact, sometimes even flawed is very misleading and that’s what makes them so cool. His quote “looking is harder than it looks” is no more evident and true than in his photographs. The image that really speaks to me is the one that Baldwin Lee called the nicest sign painters shop in the world.
At first glance this picture looks really boring and dull. As you dig deeper however, you start to see the real genius that this picture really is. The offset look, the letters on the wall and the almost impossible way things are lined up make it into more than a photograph, they make it into a work of art. I believe that all of his photographs posses this quality of mystery and intrigue but this photograph really spoke to me personally.
I think what really makes these photographs special is their double meaning. Even though Walker Evans main task was to document the south and all the struggle that people went through, these pictures show so much more knowledge and information then most people believe. There is an insight that people overlook and that’s what makes the pictures seem more real. The suffering of the people isn’t left to just face value because these pictures make you think and get right into the image and into these peoples lives. Its something that I think Evans really tried to do and he did it beautifully.
I may not know very much about art but I can tell that this is a wonderful representation of American life in the 1930’s. In my opinion Evans made something so basic and strait forward into a masterpieces of photography.
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