Walker Evans, Subway Portrait
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, March 9th.
I think that it is sort of strange that he has taken photos of these people discretely and published them 25 years later. These people had no knowledge that their photo was being taken nor did they get any credit for it. I also wonder how nobody noticed a camera in his vest because I imagined cameras to be a lot bulkier in size and harder to hide in a jacket. As for the facial expressions, they are the same as us subway riders today. The blank stares and looking nowhere in particular because even back then, it was rude to stare. All the people in the photos look as though they are lost in their own though and spacing out avoiding contact. Today on public transportation, we are the same way. Now we have portable music so we can look nowhere in particular in more of a relaxed mind state because we’re listening to music but even over a hundred years later, we have not changed as subway riders