" If I could tell a story in words, I wouldn't need to lug a camera."
-Lewis Hine
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| Lily Fields, Walker Evans (photograph), 1936 |
*WALKER EVANS*
Walker Evans was born in 1903 and died in 1975. He was contributed to the evolution of photography from the aesthetic and artistic, to the raw and real documentation of truth. Evans was able to see poetry in places where poetry had not traditionally been "seen."
Almost accidentally, Walker Evans became synonymous with the photographic style known as documentation photography. This style seeks the bare-naked truths and facts about pieces of life. Evans was incredibly skilled in finding deep poetic qualities and elements in images that might have before seemed to be common-place, ordinary, unattractive or uncomfortable. He captured many shots of human beings, and was skillful in capturing portraits as well.
Almost accidentally, Walker Evans became synonymous with the photographic style known as documentation photography. This style seeks the bare-naked truths and facts about pieces of life. Evans was incredibly skilled in finding deep poetic qualities and elements in images that might have before seemed to be common-place, ordinary, unattractive or uncomfortable. He captured many shots of human beings, and was skillful in capturing portraits as well.
*THE PHOTOGRAPH*
The above photograph titled "Lily Fields" was taken by Evans in 1936. Though I viewed and studied this image digitally, the original image was captured on a 35 mm film negative. The image was then printed on photo paper and processed in a darkroom to make the final photograph image. Though the darkroom equipment in the 1930's was much different, the following video provides a basic overview of the processed involved in analog photo processing.
*PHOTOGRAPHIC QUALITIES*
The photographic image is captured and displayed with portrait orientation rather than landscape orientation. The layout alone adds so much to the overall effect on the viewer's mind, as it makes the visual space appear more tight and confining. The viewer can only see surrounding areas which are still quite close to her body. She seems to be completely encased in wood, shadows and reflections fo light which some in from outside the image.
The photograph's main subject, Lily, is placed in the center of the image with two of her children. Her body is framed, almost entrapped by the many lines which run diagonally, vertically and horizontally around her. The lines surrounding her and her children are made by the floorboards, furniture, doors and even by her long lap which is cradling one of her children. Every visible line is part of her family's cabin in Hale County, Alabama.
Black and white photography is unique in that is can be much less distracting. Color is beautiful, but can sometimes take away from the emotional expressions of human subjects. Lily's body is centered in the darkest part of the photo, a room that lays beyond the space which she and her children occupy. Her body is facing what appears to be the outdoors which illuminates her face and torso in natural light. However, the light almost serves to add burden to her as her body is slumped in as s-shape and her spine curves back toward the darkness. These elements work to make the light somehow seem much farther away from her.
One of her children is on the floor and is looking up at her smiling. Though her face is directly facing that of her son, she does not appear to "see" him. Instead, she seems to be lost in melancholic thought. Her face shows sadness, hopelessness and exhaustion. It is difficult to tell whether her eyes are even open, although I assume they are.
*THE STORY WITHIN*
In 1936, Walker Evans was on assignment as a photographer for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). The FSA hired several photographers to travel and visually document both the living and working conditions in rural America. Though Evans was not necessarily acutely aware of the social and historical importance of his photography at the time, he seemed to intuitively and instinctively know what to capture in his images.
Please click here to listen to Walker Evans briefly discuss his process and experience with visually documenting the rural south in the Great Depression.
Lily Fields was the wife of Bud Fields, a cotton sharecropper. They lived with their children in a cabin in rural Alabama. In this photograph, Lily seems to be beaten down by life, by circumstances, by her life in the midst of the Great Depression. Their home state, Alabama, was hit especially hard by The Great Depression.
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| http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/dep02.jpg |
