Walker Evans
 

Princeton University Press have recently published Walker Evans: starting from scratch, by Svetlana Alpers. This appears to be the art historian's first book on photography and it is (very positively) reviewed by the author Joyce Carol Oates in the February 26th issue of the Times literary supplement.

The book is described as being 257 pages long: the review refers to "the 143 photographic plates preceding... [the] 213-page text". It costs £34.

I don't like to reproduce the review here without permission; but I'd happily let any interested FADU member have photographs of its two pages. That issue of the TLS has an Evans photograph on the cover - fella sitting on a tipped-back chair next to a doorway in bright American sunshine.

I've never heard of this guy, but out of curiosity checked him out.

It seems he mostly used a 10" x 8" camera and the following link gives a review and has a good number of pictures to browse as well:

https://www.picturethispost.com/walk...h-book-review/

Terry S

Interestingly, only 10x8" or 35mm negatives mentioned - nothing in-between. Except that, where the outline of the film holder and orientation notches are visible, there is a hint of an in-between size.

One negative 7"x5" "or smaller" is mentioned as image no. 60 at the end of that review; but it's the only one that stands out.

Have just taken a look at my copy of Mora and Hill's Walker Evans: the hungry eye, Thames & Hudson, 1993. From the detailed annotations there, Evans made negatives in a wide variety of sizes from 1927/8 onwards. The first 35mm I can see is from 1929 and the first 10x8 from 1935.

Actually, that book might be more useful than the new one, with its 470 illustrations on pretty good paper. I also have the little book in the Phaidon "55" series, published in 2001. Gutters are a bit tight on that one; but it has a sewn binding (so has the first one I mentioned). Both reasonably good introductions to Evans; and both include some of his Subway portraits.

"Walker Evans at Work" indicates that he also cut up his negatives to crop the images.
And it's a very good read, too.

Nick, I searched abebooks.co.uk on the title and found what could be two different books. If you have time, would you mind taking a look and seeing which one's yours?

I have the 1982 edition published by Thames & Hudson and I can't see it being offered.

Thank you for that. It narrows things down enough, I think.

A short film produced by the Polaroid Corporation to promote their then new 105 positive/negative film. Walker Evans uses a Rolleiflex SL66.

https://www.eastman.org/5-105