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Unclassified - A Walker Evans Anthology: Se

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I was puzzled by this book when I first saw it: it seemed a strange miscellany of archival trivia with little of the unearthed treasure I had hoped to see direct from the official Evans archive. But upon reflection I can see the method to Jeff Rosenheim & Company's "madness." This is less a book to read for enjoyment - although I have found it very enjoyable - than an anthology of materials (writings, letters, photographs, collections) essential to a thorough understanding of Walker Evans, either as a photographer or as a person. It is the background material from which his life was constructed, and I cannot imagine any serious student of Evans neglecting to own it.

What did I learn from this wonderful tome? Well, for one, it really fleshes out the seeming walking contradiction that was Walker Evans: A Bohemian who really *was* poor; A man so honestly in love with the French literature of his day that he went beyond the affectations of a dilletante and made some awkward attempts at his own stories, but also came up with some excellent translations; A progressive of the left who nonetheless had no use for New Deal phoney hacks; A man of letters, culture and taste who also had a great command over four letter words in his letters to Hans Skolle and James Agee (I love the "hatred for" lists compiled by the latter two -- totally politically incorrect).

Walker Evans was a brilliant photographer, therefore was a bitter man, because he observed life so keenly; the warts took on an almost surreal dimension. Nonetheless, he could always see beyond the muck and mire, and it is his bittersweet reflections on life that have the ring of honesty, integrity and a sort of sour, cynical truth, but never "truth with a capital 'T'."

I feel after reading this collection of elusive ephemera that I now truly can begin to understand what made Walker Evans tick.
I recommend reading this while imbibing rum and Cokes or a fine Bordeaux Rouge.

This anthology, traces the development of an American master, opening a window to his creative process and inner life.

Mr. Rosenheim's wonderful book is getting harder to find. I recommend it to all Walker Evans fans who will learn much through biographical detail about how he saw his world. This scholarship's arguments and explanations are deliciously refreshing and insightful. Like the cover, it reveals welcome, fascinating, new territory.

The book overflows with its intelligence and extensive, beautiful documentation by and about one of this country's best artists. It has lots of gorgeous reproductions, probably expensive, varnished tri-tones on this heavy, coated stock. It is unusual to enjoy a paper opacity sufficient so as not to show through to some degree what is printed on the other side of each page. I mention all of this because it is rare to find a book that is not intended for a career on a coffee table that has such high production values. Most publications lack the necessary budget and/or expertise to succeed like this book has done. The integrity of Walker's prints are appropriately respected in the process. Their verisimilitude has meaning beyond technical merits and the viewer is not needlessly distracted or required to settle with poor reproductions that have little in common with the original work in any way. Nonetheless, it is not just expensive to print but it is difficult to do it so well. But then again this is the Met. Its excellence does not surprise me.

What a wonderful learning opportunity! The prose is clear and concise, not opaque and jargon drenched. You can actually learn things -- things that matter, new ideas based upon original, well supported interpretations. First of all, this book is a rich primary source of personal records that only the Metropolitan Museum has, which comprises a deep well of intimate writing complemented with images Evans made, his correspondence, his translations from French literature and images - both high and low - that he saved and collected. I did not realize that Evans was as intelligent, literary or quirky as this book reveals. Secondly, these scholars did not begin with their conclusions or subordinate the Met's Walker Evans Archives (WEA) to serving the agenda driven cultural politics of our times. All kinds of scholarship add to what we know but there is a curse of conformity that triggers the law of diminishing returns that comes along with any orthodoxy winning and then enforcing control of its times. Consequently, this book is particularly welcome.

Appropriately for Evans, there is no pedantry on these pages. Walker Evans knew exactly what he was doing when he consistently saved several thousand pages of his letters, negatives, published articles, lists and playful prose over the long course of his life. I suspect that he understood not only that he had a place in history but what that was. Maybe it was not so calculating and was less self-conscious. After all he was a collector bordering upon the obsessive in degree--his effects filled several truck loads. In fact, to a large part it was this plenitude's logistical excess that caused his archives to be turned down by several museums over two decades before Mr. Rosenheim finessed their acquisition by the Met.

His documentation on film succeed because not in spite of his strongly held views. However he is in charge of his passions and uses his individuality, his unique point of view that defines the purpose of his photographs and gives them life. That distinguishes them from his contemporaries' work. Not all of his passions and opinions are attractive even when accounting for their place in his time. More compelling is being able to apply what you are learning about what he thought about, felt and believed into new, possibly deeper understandings of his apparently "artless" documentary style that has been so influential over several generations of photographers that it is a task to try and appreciate his work in his own time which he saved so carefully for our edification. The ubiquity of his followers' photography bearing everything but his name dilutes the originality and nuance I can only conjecture was initially seen by his audiences. Evans leaves many, maybe too many, visual footnotes in the works of millions of photographs by so many people with various levels of talent and intelligence who have been directly or indirectly by his influence. Evans carefully considered then chose the appropriate subjects, content and personal style that he believed were fundamentally and unequivocally American. His influence has long spread well beyond our national borders by some of photography's biggest names particularly in Europe and Japan although in degree, the ice cold detachment and banality of some work clearly reflect our times more than his. His method, approach and work itself continue to inform and influence new generations.

Lastly, the front cover photograph is a self-portrait when he was 24. Its gesture, sound and motion easily speak to our age. Read this book. It is the Walker Evans to whom you have not yet been introduced. Please note that we are encouraged by the Met's Photography Department curators to visit their extensive, scanned archives (WEA) now available online.