Walker Evans Report

Walker Evans was an American Photographer born in the early 1900's. Walker started photographing in the late 1920’s and like most photographers, he was stuck between paying bill and being dead broke. He had a day job to pay bills, which was a night job so that he had all day to take photos. He is most known for photographing the Great Depression as well as people on the streets of New York in the 1930’s. He called photography a “forbidden fruit” which is why he wanted to do it because he often went against the grain of society. He photographed his interest because it wasn’t really the thing to do, so he did it. Walker started not only photographing people but letters and signs as well. He stated that lettering and signs were very important to him, perhaps because he would like to be a letterer. He always tried to capture the emotion of his subjects. Walker mainly shot in black and white, however he experimented with color but felt that black and white captured the true essence of his subjects. Walker says, "What draws me to street photography is how honest and real it is. However, it can be quite cruel and brutal." He partly did not want to be established at all, when he explained it, it didn’t make total sense but I imagine he just wants to photograph for a purpose not for fame.