One of the Evan's quotes that Baldwin mentioned that really stuck with me was "Looking is harder than it looks." In my opinion, every single one of Walker's photographs contain far more information than what we see. I was unaware of a lot of the messages that his photographs contained, for example, the image of one of the sharecropper's home with the cotton sitting on the porch with a couple pieces segregated by themselves. Another image that exemplifies this was inside of another sharecropper's home with the bed as the focus. I would have never noticed the flies and stains on the white beds sheets if not for Baldwin mentioning it. This shows that Evan's portrayed a very specific matter or lifestyle about the person or family he was photographing. In that certain picture, it really showed that even though the family was living in the depression and very poor, they wanted to have a nicely made bed and the flies just enhanced the poor conditions even more. I think that his thinking of the deeper message behind the image is what makes him more than a documentary photographer. I think unlike other photographers around the time of the Great Depression involved with the Farm Security Administration(FSA), Evan's was more involved putting thought and consideration into each and every image. According to Baldwin, Walker would twist and manipulate his camera to go into very unusual positions just so he could get the exact aspect of the place that he was thinking up. Another quote that Baldwin said was "a chasm between your aspirations and reality." He mentioned this when he was talking about the image with the Santa Claus and college graduates collage among a barren house. Baldwin said that the occupants in Evan's description may have been aspiring artists and understood collages but were unable to go for that, reality sets in and poverty takes over. I think that can be easily related to how people are struggling now with our current economy. One would think that with a new day and age and learning from other past bad economic slumps, we wouldn't be in a similar situation, but sadly we are. I feel like that reality of everything with life makes it a lot harder for people to really go get what they're aspiring towards and Evan's is a very inspiring artist for doing exactly that.
Since we started talking about the Farm Security Administration in class, I have been interested in what it was set up to do. Since Dorothea Lange is one of my favorite photographers and part of the administration, I was excited to learn that another similar photographer was going to be exhibited at our very own gallery. Before studying him, I was unaware that I actually was familiar with some of Walker Evan's famous photographs. The main one was of the sharecropper wife, Ally Mae Burroughs, taken in Alabama in 1936. The image itself is very artistic in showing the distress she certainly must have been feeling. Baldwin also said in his lecture that there were two images of the very same woman released to the public. When comparing the pictures which were taken at the same photo-shoot, the differences are incredible. The picture I was familiar with was where the wife has a slight smile on her face, as if even in the worst of times, she would bear through. The one that I was just introduced to, was taken at the same shoot, but is completely different. My translation is that it was taken after the other one and that reality was falling back upon the woman. Her brows are furrowed, her lips pursed, and the lines on her forehead are stressed. She looks completely in despair, most likely relating to the economic peril that she was living with. I really enjoy that Evan's decided to photograph her in front of a plain side of a building which makes the focus her expression. Because his photographs were so different than just documenting the poverty like the administration was supposed to do, Evan's was eventually let go by the FSA. I admire his determination to do exactly what he wants to get an image. He is definitely more than just a documentary photographer in my mind.
FSA Source: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug97/fsa/farm.html
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