Subway Portraits

I liked how Evans described people riding the subway, “People’s faces are in naked repose down in the subway.” We all know how it is riding the subway, most of the time it is very chaotic, and sometimes at some stops it might be calm. The expressions that most of these photographed people have in the images is like that of daydreaming, perplexing faces. I think what Evans did was very interesting, clandestine photography is great use of documenting a social circumstance. Evans wanted nothing but to look at people, and people working hard to wrap themselves in solitude. But what is very interesting and it really catches my attention is the fact of photographing people inside the subway. Having a camera hidden inside your coat and pressing the button to take a photograph, and more fascinating the way he tried to estimate the right angle so that his target will be inside the frame of the photo. I think that if that project was done this time, most of the photographs will be of people sleeping, looking down to their electronic devices, wearing headphones and reading newspapers/books. Moreover, subways is more heavy advertise than before, so people have more to look at, instead of just looking at each other.