As a pioneer of the documentary tradition of American photography, Walker Evans is one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. Evans articulately recorded the American scene from the late 1920s to the early 1970s with poetic yet punctuated descriptions of quotidian American life. Capturing its colloquial architecture––cheap cafe’s and simple bedrooms, outdoor advertising, and local people in public settings––Evans, over the course of fifty years, created not only an encyclopedic visual catalogue of modern America in the making, but also an artistic approach that influenced the evolution of photography and has inspired generations of artists.
