Untitled (Subway Portrait, New York)
Walker Evans
1938–1941
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- Image: 13.9 × 20.8 cm (5 1/2 × 8 1/4 in.); Paper: 19.9 × 25 cm (7 7/8 × 9 7/8 in.); Mount: 45.6 × 35.6 cm (18 × 14 1/16 in.)
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Tags
photographic techniquesphotographyphotographic processesblack-and-white photographygelatin silver (developing-out-paper) prphotographphotographic processphotographic paper
About
As it was illegal at the time to take pictures on the New York City subway, Walker Evans had to act stealthily while making this portrait. He hid a small 35mm Contax camera in his coat, the lens peeking out between the buttons, and snapped pictures of unsuspecting commuters. “My idea of what a portrait ought to be,” Evans wrote, was “anonymous and documentary and a straightforward picture of mankind.” Devoid of journalistic purpose or romantic sentimentality, Evans‘s subway portraits present a candid view of humanity within the modern urban environment.
