Walker Evans Photography Exhibition 1935 – 1936
Walker Evans' photographs brings together
about 60 black and white prints, reflecting rural working life in
the southern states of America. This exhibition runs in the
Gibberd Gallery from 13 February to 13 March 2010
During the Great American Depression of
1935-36, the Missouri-born photographer Walker Evans (1903-1975)
embarked on a photographic project that would produce some of the
most iconic images in the history of photography.
Employed as an 'Information Specialist' in President Roosevelt’s
Resettlement Administration, he was commissioned to record the work
of its rehabilitation programme, as well as to document the daily
lives of farmers and flood victims.
Evans travelled to Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and South
Carolina capturing the townscapes and buildings as well as making
more intimate portraits of family life. He also recorded interiors
and exteriors of sharecroppers' homes, group portraits and the
famous close-up portraits of the Burroughs family.
These disquieting, provocative images are seen by many as the
culmination of Evans' photographic career, capturing the
expressions of the weak and vulnerable and showing the fragility of
their existence. His work details the harsh realities faced during
the Great Depression in the Southern States of America and allows
us to bear witness to its tragedy.
The exhibition has been selected by Jeff L. Rosenheim, associate
curator of photography at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York.