Homework #2 Walker Evans Subway Portraits

Walker Evans’s passion for photography propelled him to secretly capture the images he saw regularly on the subway. Being a photographer myself, I wish I could take portraits of straphangers especially with the diverse population and culture of New York City. I thought it was amusing description in the New York Times interview regarding how Evans had his camera hidden under his coat and a shutter release cable hidden in his shirt sleeve and trigger in hand. I’m sure subway riders were suspicious at times when he was fumbling with his coat trying to advance the film in his camera. I see a lot of similarities in terms of the expressions people had then and now and I don’t feel that the experience we have on mass transportation has changed much at all.