CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 3/30/2016

Walker Evans: Labor Anonymous

Featured image is reproduced from Labor Anonymous, D.A.P. Publishing and Walther König's new collection of Walker Evans' eloquent but little-known street portraits of Detroit factory workers. David Campany ends his remarkable closing essay, "As single photographs and as arranged groupings Evans’ portraits are among the boldest and most troubling ever made. Others would follow his existential path. Think of the subway photographs by Bruce Davidson, Luc Delahaye, Martin Parr or Michael Wolff. Think of the street portraiture of Diane Arbus, Ken Ohara, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Beat Streuli or Eamonn Doyle. But really Evans had already gone to the abyss and looked in. What did he see? The modern anonymity of his fellow citizens, and the modern anonymity of his own medium."