I think that Walker Evans has a captivating way of taking photographs of people’s expressions on the subway. People don’t often take pictures of other people riding the subway. In my opinion, capturing photos of people on the subway without them knowing is a good idea because we can see others real expression and feelings towards riding the subway. If Walker Evans takes his camera out, people’s facial expressions would change and would smile to look good in the photo. The way Walker Evans took the photo was that he hid his camera in his coat and took photos of people when they’re not noticing. It seemed like Walker Evans focused mostly on people’s facial expression. While looking at the photos, today’s riders and back then are similar because people are doing their own thing such as reading the newspaper and sleeping. The only difference is that people nowadays listen to music on the train to kill their boredom. In today’s society, people would not allow others to take a picture of them.
I agree that Evan’s approach back then wouldn’t work today because many people today are focused on their phones and do not like to be bothered by anything or anyone. There are those passengers who don’t use their phones and have those blank looks on their faces like shown in Evan’s photographs.