Walker Evans

The definitve biography of Walker Evans (1903-1975), one of the great American photographers of the twentieth century, is full of rare photographs and written by one of Americas most esteemed biographers.. Walker Evans (19031975) is best known as one of the leading documentary photographers of the Depression Era, and for his photographs of Alabama sharecroppers in James Agees Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. His FSA photographs have become icons in the American consciousness, and are perhaps the most influential body of photographic work in this century. With unrestricted access to all of Evans diaries, letters, work logs and contact sheets, James R. Mellow has produced one of the most finely wrought portraits of a major American artist ever. Also, it is a deeply informed cultural history of the 1930s and 40s and a lively account of friendships and influences with the likes of Lincoln Kirstein and James Agee. }Walker Evans (19031975) is best known as one of the leading documentary photographers of the Depression Era, and for his photographs of Alabama sharecroppers in James Agees Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. His FSA photographs have become icons in the American consciousness, and are perhaps the most influential body of photographic work in this century.But Evans was not the propagandist for social causes he was presumed to be; he was, instead, a fastidious observer, recording, simply, the way things were. His instinctive aversion to artiness contrasted him sharply from his senior Alfred Stieglitz, and his immediate contemporary, Ansel Adams. Evans eye took him toward the dusty particulars, the backroads of American life, its rundown mill towns, roadside stands, torn movie posters and advertisements for departed minstrel shows. He developed a peculiarly American vernacular, his particular trademark that makes an Evans photograph almost instantly recognizable. With unrestricted access to all of Evans diaries, letters, work logs and contact sheets, James R. Mellow has produced one of the most finely wrought portraits of a major American artist ever. Also, it is a deeply informed cultural history of the 1930s and 40s and a lively account of friendships and influences with the likes of Lincoln Kirstein and James Agee. }

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements; Introduction by Hilton Kramer; Prologue; School Years; The Incandescent Center; Standing Aside; Words, Etc.; The Center of Things; The Indigenous Past; Voyages; Cuba Libre; Seeing Red; The Politics of the Vernacular; Jane; Love in the Thirties; A Subsidized Freedom; A Curious Piece of Work; The Cruel Radiance of What Is; Untitled; A Way of Seeing; A Penitent Spy and an Apologetic Voyeur; An Apartment of the East Side; Contemporary American Subjects; Resorters, Tourists, migres; Of Time...; ...And Fortune: the Road Taken; "If Its There, Its There."; Couples; A Season of Endings; 1957-1975: A Summary; Notes; List of Illustrations; A Brief Chronoolgy; Selected Bibliography; Index.