Walker Evans photographed people on the New York City subways between 1938-1941. He only published these photographs 25 years later in his book, Many Are Called, which was re-issued in 2004. Read a review about the new edition in the New York Times or listen to a radio interview of the book’s re-release and a related exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Then look at some of Evans photographs on the Getty website or on Visualingual’s blog. What do you think of Evans’ clandestine approach to photography? Do you see similarities between the riders’ expressions during the Depression Era to today’s riders?
NPR interview with Met curator Jeff Rosenheim (audio)
Getty Collection of Walker Evans Subway Portraits
Visualingual’s Blog on Walker Evans’ Subway Portraits
Please post your responses and comments by Saturday, October 20th.
I think Evan’s clandestine approach to photography was to emphasize the character of the people in the subway. By using this hiden camera to capture the people emotion and what they might be thinking while underway in their business. It’s a different view to show people expresion when they alone. When taking a picture, people poze for the camera to look beautifull and for the photo to come out nice but this people did not, this picture taken by evans was secret. They did not know they were being taken and show the real charater of a person without telling them to poze and to take a picture. All of this picture were taken durng the great eppression and some people expression on the subway were sad, some have smile on their faces and orders look lost. It’s was a tough time to live in during that year. I don’t see similiraties between the riders expresion during the depression era’s and today’s riders. Today’s riders seen moe relax and seen everything going great for them. Since technology is different from the great depression era’s, most people have listen to music while in the subway to clear there mind. The similarities might be there but some people dont show it in their faces exppression.
I often wonder if anyone tries to take photos of me or other people on the train today, either way I try to look normal and not make weird faces or eye contact with other people on the subway. The reason I do this is because I believe it is rude to stare at others or make them uncomfortable. Evan was kind enough to not let the subject know that they were being photographed secretly, however looking at his work I feel like I’m doing something wrong or rude by looking at the photos of these people during one of their vulnerable state. Kind of like a “peeping Tom”, Evan’s captured these people true nature or character. One would say these are great work but I feel Evan stole these people’s vulnerable moments during their life, I don’t like it because I believe he didn’t earn them the right way, perhaps it be okay if these subjects were his family members or they were given notice (paper) that at some point in their day without them noticing the camera that they would be photographed and to act natural but I guess most of them would wear their best cloths and pose. How can a person pose if they don’t know were the camera is? I think most wouldn’t if they didn’t see the photographer. During the Depression era and our current era there is not much change in the behavior or expressions of people riding the train, in fact the only difference is the use of technology such as Ipods,Ipads, Cellphones,etc. but the expressions remain similar not much emotion of happiness or sadness just lost in thought and boredom. Evan truly came up with new way of photography which today government officials FBI, CIA ,and paparazzi use to capture people in their act.
What I personally like about Evans’ photography is his attempt to capture people’s real personality on camera. I agree with the two above, where they mentioned that we always try to look our best when someone’s taking a picture from us. Evans didn’t want that though. He wanted something new, something that would capture people’s attention right away, which was none other than their true inner personality. The interesting fact is that the pictures were taken during the Great Depression era, where people had to sacrifice their free time in order to work, so that “maybe” they could earn enough money to purchase a snack for the rest of the day. Evans understood that, and attempted to capture that miserable feeling that was carved onto people’s faces by taking pictures. Yes, if someone decides to take a picture from us today (without asking permission), we can’t help but to feel angry, because it’s just a normal day, with normal events happening. It might have been the same for those people…but Evans worked like a sneaky detective, but today, people are too obvious… Thanks to Evans’ “visual aid”, we are now able to understand the hardship that people had to go through during that era, which is definitely something that we don’t want to go through today.
Every time when we know that people are taking picture of us, we will look at the camera and try to look the best from the picture. For this, it is hard to see a normal emotion and look on our picture. From Evans’s subway project, he sit in the subway station do noting and look at people keep walking around in the station. He also capture on the moment that people spend in the subway station. From the pictures that Evan took, they all show the real characteristic of everyone. Everyone is acting normal on those pictures, nobody is trying to act like a model and show their best to the photographer. I think it is interesting and meaningful to take picture besides letting anyone knows. By taking picture secretly, it can show people real emotion and personality on the picture. Nobody try to dress up nice or have a nice pose on those pictures because none of them know that Evan is talking picture of them. Today, it is hard to find any picture like that right now. On most of the pictures that I see around, people will dress up nice with a nice pose which is not showing their real personality.
I find evans subway project very awesome. simply because it would be nearly impossible to accomplish today. this being because people generally don’t want a stranger taking pictures of them and this might lead to a serious confrontation. the people show no real emotion just like today’s subway riders. just like today everyone seems to just be in a hurry to get to wherever it is they are going. they also look tired and almost just bored to be sitting there on the train doing nothing.
Even though this project was a violation of privacy of the subway riders, taking someone photos without asking for permission. But yet it is one great project it captures the emotions that someone would not portray these emotions if someone was to snap a picture with permission. It shows how everyone looks on the subways these days and shows how someone reads a newspaper, sleeping or staring at the floor. I think if someone tries to do that today and if he gets caught then he be in for some trouble. These images show someone coming from work looking tired or someone going to work in morning or someone having an argument with his/her friend. I find this project really interesting but won’t recommend it lol.