Photograph by Walker Evans, 'Main Street, Saratoga Springs, New York', 1931, gelatin silver print

Photograph

Walker Evans is one of the most celebrated American photographers. During the Great Depression of the 1930's, he worked for the American government’s Farm Security Administration programme, and created some of the most potent and memorable images of the era. His documentary style focussed on the details of individual human lives in unforgiving circumstances. "I am for man’s work", he said; "nature bores me as an art form". Evans went on to take pictures of people on the New York subway using a hidden camera, a series on tools and Polaroid images of rural and urban Americana.

Evans meticulously framed this view of a rainslicked street from the high vantage point of his hotel window. Slicing diagonally through the composition is a series of nearly identical parked cars, their regular forms repeating into the distance. Although the bare-branched trees lining the street contribute to the picture’s formal qualities, the image upholds the photographer’s stated preference for the manufactured over the natural: ‘I am fascinated by man’s work and the civilization he has built’, he said, ‘nature bores me as an art form.’

167-1977