O L I V I A B R A C L E Y
Walker Evans
Inspired by a Master
Born: November 3, 1903 in St. Louis, Missouri
Died: April 10, 1975 in New Haven, Connecticut
As a child, Evans grew up in the Chicago suburbs before moving several times and attending several secondary schools. In college, he attended Williams College before dropping out a year later.
After dropping out of school, Evans moved to New York City where he worked several dead-end jobs. In 1926, Evans' father financed a trip to France where Evans would continue his education in Paris for a year.
Evans returned to New York in 1927 with the intent of becoming a writer. However, that was the time Evans had developed a serious interest in photography.
Evans was inspired by Eugene Atget. Evans wanted to bring the strategies of literature, irony, lyricism, narrative structure, into his photographs.
In mid 1935 to early 1937, Evans worked, for a regular salary, as a photographer for the Resettlement Administration, which is now called the Farm Security Administration. His task was to take a "photographic survey" of rural America. However, Evans' best work came from his photographs of the objects people made rather than the people themselves.
During the summer of 1936, Evans was on leave from the FSA to work for Fortune Magazine with writer James Agee to study three sharecropping families.
In 1943, Evans was hired by Times Inc. where he spent 22 years working. Here he continued to photograph architecture, and began a series of photographs of the people of New York. The photos would later be published in a book called Many are Called in 1966.
In 1965, Evans began teaching at the School of Art and Architecture of Yale University, and retired from Time Inc. the following year.