Monday Muse: Walker Evans

Happy first Monday Muse of 2020! So far, I’ve been living my best life and enjoying learning, creating, and working towards my goals. Hopefully, I can keep it up for the long haul. I’ve been reading The Ongoing Moment by Geoff Dyer and rediscovering my love of photography. I became interested in photography while talking History of Photo in college. It was probably the best class I took in school and learned so much. While I was in the class, I had the opportunity to see a Walker Evans retrospective at the SFMOMA. Many people know of Walker Evans from his work with the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression. His most famous photographs are of tenant families living in the Dust Bowl. However, the photos that I am most drawn to are Evans’ photos of everyday American life. The candid photos, the ones with no people in them, the ones of the mundanities of life that you pass by without a second glance. It was said of his photographs that they “individually evoke an incontrovertible sense of specific places, and collectively a sense of America.” We can draw a straight line from Evans’ groundbreaking work to the desire to capture our daily lives and surroundings. Evans was the first to turn the lens toward these scenes and give them a sense of importance and in a way, to elevate the common experiences of working-class Americans to the forefront of focus. We still crave to share our experience and to telescope into the smallest of details, to show the significance of our perspective, and to convey a sense of meaning in our surroundings.

I’m focusing on the details this week, taking it all in. Walker Evans’ photography marks a turning point in the discerning eye of the photographer taking what he comes across and fine-tuning the focus to create a story. This week I’m inspired to tell my story.