Homework #2: Walker Evans

I admire Walker Evans approach to his photographs in “Many Are Called”. It’s a unique approach in the sense that he doesn’t wait for a certain reaction from his subjects, instead he captures his subjects naturally. I believe that if his subjects were aware that he was photographing, the praise he received for his work would have been much different than what is it now. I also feel it was smart of him to wait a good while to make his work public since much of the responses he would have gotten would have been negative since he took photos of people without their discretion. In comparison to the subway passengers of today, there is a lot of similarity in the expressions of then and now. Many people have a blank expression on their faces and aren’t concerned with their surroundings or interacting with others. However, if a similar approach to Evan’s work was to be reproduced today, it wouldn’t capture much facial expressions since nowadays many passengers are on their phones.