Walker Evans

Walker Evans’ portraits of subway riders with a concealed camera, display commuters with facial expressions in a range of skeptical to avoiding eye contact. It’s interesting to me that the work is described by Jennifer Ludden as being able to capture American commuters “unguarded moments”. From the expressions on the subject’s faces’ I get the sense of uncomfortable and annoyed. It makes me wonder if Evens played into the fact that he could not fully hide the fact that he was up to something, and intentionally made his subjects uncomfortable through body movements or noise. From what I understand about who he was as an artist, what drove him creatively stems from his curiosity of people and their environments. Perhaps he tested the boundaries of people’s tolerance of mild annoyances and coughed or sneezed while pressing the shutter.
My friends would say, “Do it for the art.” And commit fully to getting an interesting image when posing for one another. Sometimes that can mean interacting with the subject. I approve of whatever method Evans took to capture these expressions.