WALKER EVANS: STARTING FROM SCRATCH Book Review — Prose and Poetry to Photographs

WALKER EVANS: STARTING FROM SCRATCH Gives us a History in Pictures

In WALKER EVANS: STARTING FROM SCRATCH, Alpers captures Evans’ oeuvre from the beginning to end. The book is written in chronological order documenting periods of his life, as well as the history of the early to mid-20^th Century. We meet Evans as an artist who began photographing in 1928 when virtually all photographers were self-taught by necessity, as photography was so new there were no schools with programs to learn its skills. Common to many photographers of his era, he worked during the Great Depression with the FSA, had magazine assignments, provided photographs for books and as his popularity increased, and lectured at well-known American universities.

This writer especially enjoyed the author’s perspective on Evan’s work with the FSA capturing the Jim Crow South. Some readers may be troubled however by Alpers’ descriptions of blackface from Evans’ Minstrel poster photographs and her account of blackface and White audiences’ appreciation of Black entertainers in America.

Svetlana Alpers, the author, has included more than 143 pages of Walker Evans’ photographs. Alper’s includes an analysis of Evans use of focal point. A short focal point, Alpers avers, was part of Evans’ perspective on his subjects.

To give us perspective on what influenced Evans’ work, the author has also included plates from Atget, a 19^th Century French Photographer, whom Evans admired. And, to contrast with Evans’ work, she has included other well-known photographers such as Dorothea Lange. Cezanne prints are used to describe and compare Evans’ spatial compositions between figures. Alpers also documents Evans’ relationships with other artists from his era such as Mabry and Hemmingway.

This 213-page book provides depth and breadth about Evans’ work.  While it is not a coffee table book, there are hundreds of Evans’ photographs to contemplate. Readers, like this author, who are curious about what drove Walker Evans to create, and to learn about what influenced him and what distinguishes him from other 20^th Century photographers as it evolved will no doubt enjoy WALKER EVANS: STARTING FROM SCRATCH. We get a very comprehensive record of his work along the way.

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For more information or to purchase a copy visit the Princeton University Press webpage for WALKER EVANS: STARTING FROM SCRATCH WALKER EVANS

Images Courtesy of WALKER EVANS

Slider Photo Credits:

15.Wagonload of Cotton near the Gin, Vicinity Moundville, Alabama, 1936. Film negative, 35mm. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF33-031333-M3

60 New Orleans Houses, 1936. Film negative, 5 × 7 in. or smaller (12.7 × 17.8 cm). Library of Congress,

Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF342-008060-E

63 Company Houses for Miners, Vicinity Morgantown, West Virginia, 1935. Film negative, 8 × 10 in. or smaller (20.3 × 25.4 cm). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF342- 000856-A

71 Legionnaire, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (detail), 1935. Film negative, 35mm. Library of Congress, Prints

& Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LCUSF33- 009026-M2

79 Street in the Negro Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1936. Film negative, 8 × 10 in. or smaller (20.3 ×

25.4 cm). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF342-001282-A

80 Sidewalk Scene, Selma, Alabama, 1935. Film negative, 8 × 10 in. or smaller (20.3 × 25.4 cm).Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF342-001141-A

82 Negroes’ Houses, Outskirts Tupelo, Mississippi, 1936. Film negative, 8 × 10 in. or smaller (20.3 × 25.4 cm). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF342-008030-A

86 Negroes’ Church, Vicksburg, Mississippi, 1936. Film negative, 8 × 10 in. or smaller (20.3 × 25.4 cm). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF342-008071-A

87 Street Scene, Vicksburg, Mississippi, 1936. Film negative, 8 × 10 in. or smaller (20.3 × 25.4 cm). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF342-008076-A

89 Ante-Bellum Plantation House, Vicksburg, Mississippi, 1936. Film negative, 8 × 10 in. or smaller (20.3 × 25.4 cm). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF342-008052-A

91 Battlefield Monument (Pemberton), Vicksburg, Mississippi, 1936. Film negative, 8 × 10 in. or smaller (20.3 × 25.4 cm). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF342- 008085-A

92 Battlefield Monument (Lee), Vicksburg Mississippi, 1936. Film negative, 8 × 10 in. or smaller (20.3 × 25.4 cm). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF342- 008078-A

93 Street Scene, Vicksburg, Mississippi, 1936. Film negative, 8 × 10 in. or smaller (20.3 × 25.4 cm). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF342- 008049-A

96 Mule Team and Poster, Alabama, 1936. Film negative, 8 × 10 in. or smaller (20.3 × 25.4 cm). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF342-001134-A

102 The Tingles Singing Hymns, Hale County Alabama, 1936. Gelatin silver print, 8 × 10 in. or smaller (20.3 × 25.4 cm). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-13830

110 Floyd Burroughs on Tingle porch, 1936. Film negative, 35mm. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF33-031306-M2

111 Laurie Minnie Tingle, Hale County, Alabama, 1936. Film negative, 8 × 10 in. or smaller (20.3 × 25.4 cm). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-17931

127 Country Church, Tennessee, 1936, printed in “Primitive Churches,” Architectural Forum, December 1961. Film negative, 8 × 10 in. or smaller (20.3 × 25.4 cm). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF342-008279-A

131 Storefronts, Advance, Alabama, 1936. Film negative, 8 × 10 in. or smaller (20.3 × 25.4 cm). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF342-008162-A