Homework #2: Walker Evans

After seeing the photographs taken by Walker Evans and after reading the New York Times article about his work  I have become very interested in his photographing process. The most interesting thing is his ability to capture the expressions of these people without bringing attention to himself. I like the idea that he had to wait a while before immediately making his photographs public. It’s interesting to see that even in the early beginnings of subway travel there was this unspoken rule of everyone having their own personal bubble of solitude even though they were surrounded by other people. In his photographs most of the people on the train had very neutral expressions. Everyone was just trying to get to their own destinations so interaction between each other wasn’t necessary. After seeing these pictures I see many similarities between people riding the subway then and people riding the subway now. But there are also some differences between them. For example, in both riders of the past and riders now there is the act of not interacting with other people. In present day though, even though most people isolate themselves with their devices we tend to travel in bigger groups with people we know more than people in the past did. So in present day there are a lot of time where trains can be loud because of the difference in the level of interaction from Evans time to our time.