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Walker Evans Essay

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I did not realise when the module photo had ‘The History of Photography’ on the Cantor website that is was the gallery we were supposed to visit, it was misleading. Upon discovering that I missed the actual installation we were supposed to visit I am glad that there is a solution, so I will be comparing Walker Evans and Robert Franks photography styles. To get full comprehension on both styles of work first we will start at the beginning.

Walker Evans was born in a wealthy area of St Louis, Missouri in 1903. He graduated from an all-boys preparatory school, began college for a year before dropping out and heading to France for another year. After his return to the U.S., Evans joined the New York art crowd and began photography in 1928.
Evans began working closely with the FSA. The Farm Security Administration was one of President Roosevelts ‘Alphabet Agencies’ that helped combat rural poverty in the Great Depression.1 Evans was asked to document certain criteria of the Great Depression, being careful not to show how the reality. Evans work for the FSA was to capture America’s poverty, but being born into a wealthy family, Evans never related with the poor farmers he photographed. Walker Evans is remembered as an …show more content…

Franks most controversial film and arguably most popular was a documentary for The Rolling Stones. Similar to The Americans, it showed the gritty behind the scenes of the band, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. The film was unlike the poised, well thought out photographs we saw from Frank, some scenes in the film were shot in a way where any one backstage could pick up a camera and start filming. The montage editing exposed the bigger questions hidden within the film, the loneliness, the constant need to be ‘on’, and overall pressures of day to day life as a public figure. In the end The Rolling Stones decided to halt distribution of the film and took Frank to

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