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WALKER EVANS
AT FORTUNE
COLLINSVILLE January 1946 |
OTHER PHOTO-ESSAYS
ON THE WATERFRONT, NOVEMBER 1960 | |
AMERICAN MASONRY, April 1965 | |
THE AUTO JUNKYARD, April 1962 | |
CLAY, January 1951 | |
ALONG THE RIGHT OF WAY, September 1950 | |
THE STONES OF DU PONT, May 1957 | |
THE TWILIGHT OF AMERICAN WOOLEN, March 1954 (single image) | |
OCTOBER'S GAME, October 1954 (golf) | |
'DOWNTOWN' A LAST LOOK BACKWARDS , October 1956 | |
FORD PLANT AT THE ROUGE , May 1947 (factory exteriors) | |
ONE NEWSPAPER TOWN , May 1947 (small town profile) | |
THE PITCH DIRECT , October 1958 (selling on the pavement) | |
THE LAST OF RAILROAD STEAM, September 1958 | |
AND THAT IS THAT, December 1958 (veteran cars) | |
THE US DEPOT February 1953 | |
BEFORE THEY DISAPPEAR | |
"MAIN STREET LOOKING NORTH FROM COURTHOUSE SQUARE" MAY 1948 | |
WHEN DOWNTOWN WAS A BEAUTIFUL MESS, 1962 |
THE ATHENIAN REACH , JUNE 1964 | |
IN BRIDGEPORT'S WAR FACTORIES, September 1941 | |
IMPERIAL WASHINGTON February 1952 | |
THE COMMUNIST PARTY , September 1934 | |
IS THE MARKET RIGHT? , March 1948 | |
"THESE DARK SATANIC MILLS" , April 1956 | |
THE SMALL SHOP, February 1945 | |
BEAUTIES OF THE COMMON TOOL , July 1955 | |
THE GENTLE TRUCKERS , July 1955 | |
U.N.CAPITOL, May 1952 |
A BEAUTIFUL FACTORY VANISHES November 1955 |
LABOR ANONYMOUS November 1946 (single) | |
PEOPLE AND PLACES IN TROUBLE March 1961 | |
SIX DAYS AT SEA | |
VINTAGE OFFICE FURNITURE AUGUST 1955 | |
WHAT ROCKING THESE ROCKS , THE BANKS ? JAMES SAXON OCT 1952 | |
IN THE MIDST OF PLENTY, March 1961 (single with text) | |
SUMMER AT HARBOR POINT JULY 1960 |
WORKING WIFE, $96.30 a week April 1953 | |
POP RYBOVICH'S BACK YARD June 1961 |
SINGLES
INLAND AS IN BETHLEHEM, PA. February 1940 |
WEED OF ANACONDA. August 1958 |
Walker Evans was Staff Photographer at FORTUNE from 1945 to 1965. There is an excellent account of the relationship in WALKER EVANS AT FORTUNE, Wellesley College Museum, 1977/8, by Lesley Baier. She interviewed Max Gschwind who, aside from his masterly visualisations of science and structure, was assistant art director. Evans' earliest appearence was The Communist Party, September 1934, see above. His celebrated project that became Let Us Now Praise famous Men, began as a FORTUNE assignment with James Agee who also had contributed to the magazine. After work on location, Evans developed on his own layouts. Despite Evans' claims to Cummings. Baier notes that after 1954, he did work on the layout of some of the portfolios with Ronald Campbell. Working with different sized photocopies of the intended images, he tweaked and teased to get the exact reading. It was widely known that at times Evans would trim his negatives to render a fait accompli. PAUL CUMMINGS: What about 1943 when you joined the Time-Life complex
and then went to Fortune two years later? Did you there have enough
freedom? Or were you given specific assignments? PAUL
CUMMINGS: But one thing we didn’t really
get into is the portfolios and things that you did for Fortune which
you said you initiated. Oral history interview with Walker Evans, 1971 Oct. 13-Dec. 23, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
ROY STRYKER: Well, Walker is a staff member of Fortune, with a very
interesting assignment, which is -- he's called an editor. He goes
out and does special photographic assignments. I don't know how much
he does editing inside of it but he's done -- if look through the old
copies of Fortune you'll see some quite remarkable picture series. ROY STRYKER: Yes. Remarkable series. Still showing the same old competence, still showing his discerning eye. A series he did on the railroads, on the locomotives, in which he shot the close-ups of the drive mechanism; the beautiful sequence he did in on the old buildings -- the continuation of an early love of his, which was at Saratoga; he went back up and did some of the material up there. You'll see that Walker Evans is still, in his way, continuing his 8 x 10 camera perception, if I may use that strange phrase, of the world about him. : Oral history interview with Roy Emerson Stryker, 1963-1965, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. |
WHAT SHOULD FORTUNE PHOTOGRAPHS DO? "The picture is quiet and true. Since I am writing about photography let me point out that this picture is a better part of the story at hand than either a drawing or a painting would be. There is a profitable and well-run cracker firm in a sweaty part of the town, there is a knot of men talking on the pavement about anything but crackers, amidst the irrelevant trucks. This is where Mal-o-Mars are cooked and this is where last week's newspaper meets the gutter too. And the Strand Hotel becomes famous for flavour. My point is Fortune photographs should take a long look at a subject, get into it, and without shouting, tell a lot about it." to R.D. Paine, 23.7.48 (Walker Evans at Work). |
WALKER EVANS AT FLAIR |
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