Walker Evans

Walker Evans was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans's work from the FSA period uses the large-format, 8×10-inch camera.

Evans is one of the most fundamental documentary photographers with regards to the 'Photo essay'. This is a series of images that incorporate both art and journalism that evoke a strong feeling from its viewing audience. The images are informative as well as artistically strong. However Evans in his time disputed the idea of documentary photography arguing that “Documentary? That’s a very sophisticated and misleading word. And not really clear. You have to have a sophisticated ear to receive that word. The term should be documentary style. An example of a literal document would be a police photograph of a murder scene. You see, a document has use, whereas art is really useless. Therefore art is never a document, though it certainly can adopt that style.” Therefore Evans work could be described as an art piece in a documentary style.

Evans has a strong grasp on the objective as he does not have links to his subjects however within my work i do. I am open to my work taking a subjective path as it is natural and unstoppable due to my connection to Hamworthy and its people, i am an insider however this is not necessarily a negative thing. Being an insider means that the individuals i plan to document will hopefully feel more comfortable with my presence rather than someone who is an outsider.

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