Walker Evans was born in St. Louis, Missouri on November 3,
1903. He went to Williams College for one year of French literature before he
dropped out. He spent one year in Paris before working as a clerk for a stockbroker
on Wall Street in 1927 to 1929. In 1928 Evans became interested in photography
and in 1930 he published three pictures in The
Bridge by Hart Crane. In 1933 Evans published pictures of Cuba revolting
their dictator and was briefly known as Ernest Hemingway. Evans got introduced
to taking photos of the Resettlement Act (RA) later known as Farm Security Administration
(FSA). Evans was known for photos about the Depression and the FSA. Three families
in Akron, Alabama were made icons of poverty and the Depression by Evans. He worked
for FSA until 1938 when the Museum of Modern Art in New York had an exhibition
of his work which was the first time an exhibition was devoted to one person. Using a hidden camera in his coat, Evans took
his first pictures of New York subways. In 1945 he began working at Time magazine. Then Evans became editor
at Fortune until 1965. After that he
became a professor at Yale University School of Art. Evans died at his home in New
Haven, Connecticut in 1975 at the age of 71. Evans was inducted to St. Louis
Walk of Fame in 2000. Evans claim to fame was photos about the Depression and that
were literate, firm, divine. He wanted his photos to tell a story without
words. The picture below is the one the stands out the most to me. It shows how
the Depression affects women and children. Evans in his photography tried to
convey the hard times of the Depression and the different views of it from the
food stores to the people in the towns.
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