Walker Evans: A Biography
Walker Evans: A Biography by Belinda Rathbone, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1995, offers an in-depth exploration of the life and work of the renowned photographer Walker Evans. Spanning 358 pages, this biography delves into Evans’s impactful images, particularly his haunting portrayals of southern sharecroppers in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, and examines the personal obsessions that shaped his artistic vision. Rathbone, a leading authority on Evans, provides insights into his relationships with notable figures in the New York literary scene, revealing the complexities of his character and career.
Readers will find a detailed account of Evans’s life, highlighting his love for Americana and his unique approach to photography. The biography discusses his friendships and rivalries, including his connections with Hart Crane and James Agee, as well as his independence from contemporaries like Ansel Adams. Rathbone captures the essence of Evans’s personality, portraying him as both charismatic and enigmatic, while also emphasizing his talent for revealing the telling detail in his work. This edition serves as a comprehensive resource for those interested in photography and the cultural landscape of the 20th century.
Official synopsis Publisher
Walker Evans’s haunting images of southern sharecroppers in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men were as revolutionary in their time as James Agee’s text and are now deeply ingrained in the American consciousness. In the first full biography of this intriguing and enigmatic artist, a leading national authority on Evans looks beyond the calculated anonymity of his work to reveal the singular obsessions behind it. A man in love with Americana, Evans was a sensualist, a junk collector, a connoisseur, a wit, a perpetual weekend guest. His friendships with Hart Crane, Lincoln Kirstein, and James Agee drew him into the promiscuous New York literary scene in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, and his fierce independence from contemporaries such as Ansel Adams and Margaret Bourke-White brought him notoriety among photographers. Both charismatic and seductively aloof, Evans had a spy’s genius for capturing the telling detail. From his rise to prominence with the founding of the Museum of Modern Art to his work
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