Walker Evans

Walker Evans was an American photographer, born in Missouri in 1903. After graduating college in 1922, he spent time in New York and then Paris before returning to America to become a writer. Evans also started taking photographs around this time and his early work includes photographs to illustrate work eg The Crime of Cuba by Carlton Beal. In 1935, Evans was to accept a temporary job, which would later become a full time position, photographing a community of unemployed coal miners and small town life during the depression. Evans used the opportunity to document life exactly how it was and without sugar coating it. His later works Let us now praise Famous men, a collaboration with writer James Agee, and American Photographs, a publication by the Museum of Modern Art, show Evans' progression within his genre to become one of the worlds most influential photographers.

Evans produced a set of images between the years 1938 and 1941 which was later released in 1966 by Houghton Mifflin. The work was titled Many Are Called and includes a set of eightly-nine images of passengers on the subway, all taken secretly and without their knowledge. Evans had strapped his camera to his chest and poked the lens between the buttons on his coat to be able to take photos of the public unnoticed.

©Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
http://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/ph/web-large/DP264548.jpg

The department of photos at the Metropolitan Museum of art states that "although the setting was public, he [Evans] found that his subjects, unposed and lost in their own thoughts, displayed a constantly shifting medley of moods and expressions - by turns curious, bored, amused, despondent, dreamy, and dyspeptic."

I think this is an important factor to note. As with the example above, the images in this series show a pure and unspoilt reality. Evans has documented the subjects as they travel to wherever they are going, possibly home - tired - after a days work, to a - happy - celebration or possibly to a - sad - gathering. All the emotions are real, they aren't forged for the sake of the photograph. 

In relation to my own project, the idea is the same. To document people using their devices needs to be real. And to do this, the photographing needs to be done without their knowledge otherwise the outcome changes. The photos could look fake and fabricated or the devices could be put away entirely. Most people check their phones/use their devices to pass time, as a distraction or because they are bored and sometimes people can be unaware that they are doing it, especially in a time sense. So for me to photograph secretly, I can document exactly how much of an issue this is in our society.






References:
Department of Photographs. "[Subway Passengers, New York city]. " In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000 -. Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/evan/hd_evan.htm (October 2004) [Accessed: September 14th 2016]
Department of Photographs. "Walker Evans (1903-1975). " In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000 -. Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/evan/hd_evan.htm (October 2004) [Accessed: September 14th 2016]
International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum. 'Walker Evans (1903-1975)'. Available at: http://iphf.org/inductees/walker-evans/. [Accessed: September 14th 2016]