[Five 35mm Film Frames: Subway Passengers, New York City: Two Men Reading Newspapers, Mother and Son, Woman in Front of Transit Authority Poster]

Walker Evans

May 1940 · Film negative · Photographs

[Five 35mm Film Frames: Subway Passengers, New York City: Two Men Reading Newspapers, Mother and Son, Woman in Front of Transit Authority Poster] — Walker Evans

Between 1938 and 1941 Evans produced a remarkable series of portraits in the New York City subways. With a 35mm Contax camera strapped to his chest, its lens peeking out between two buttons of his winter coat, Evans was able to photograph his fellow passengers surreptitiously and at close range. Although the setting was public, he found that his subjects, unposed and lost in their thoughts, displayed a constantly shifting medley of moods and expressions-by turns curious, bored, amused, despondent, dreamy, and dyspeptic. "The guard is down and the mask is off," he remarked. "Even more than in lone bedrooms (where there are mirrors), people's faces are in naked repose down in the subway."

Artist: Walker Evans
Date: May 1940
Medium: Film negative
Department: Photographs
Credit line: Walker Evans Archive, 1994

[Five 35mm Film Frames: Subway Passengers, New York City: Two Men Reading Newspapers, Mother and Son, Woman in Front of Transit Authority Poster]

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