Walker Evans was one of the 20th century’s most influential photographers. For three years beginning in the winter 1938 he rode the Lexington Avenue Local along with the photographer Helen Levitt, Evans with his 35mm camera hidden between the buttons of his coat. He surreptitiously photographed the subway passengers in his quest to document the “real”. Evans had developed his unique style of photography while working for the Farm Security Administration, photographing the rural poor of the deep south. Like Dorothea Lang and Margaret Bourke White, Walker Evans created some of the most iconic images of the depression era. He attempted to show his subjects without their “mask on”, in the still moments of quiet introspection when their guard was left down. The photographs lay unpublished for 25 years. In 1966 ninety were chosen from over six hundred and paired with an essay written by James Agee in 1941. Evan’s body of work went on to inspire a generation of photographers. Each portrait captures a real person within a singular moment, as unique as a thumb print or a snowflake.

Description: First Edition. Hard bound in Dust jacket. Stated “First Printing R”on the copyright page. 178 pages. Published in association with the Riverside Press, Cambridge. Wear to dust jacket that shows several large chips and tears, now protected in clear removable Brodart cover. Introduction by James Agee. An important collection of Evans’ photographs taken on the New York subway. Errata slip present. Interior clean and binding sound. RARE!

Bookseller Inventory # 49259

· Category: Sold ·