Bridgeport, Connecticut 1941

This black and white photograph titled, Bridgeport, Connecticut, was captured by Walker Evans, but its exact creation date remains unknown. Evans doesn’t hide anything. It’s all there in the light and shade. Nothing fancy, just the real deal. The women are standing on a street in Bridgeport, their faces serious, holding their coats closed. It seems that Evans wasn’t interested in smoothing things over, but in how things really were. I like that. The details in this image are subtle but powerful. The tonal gradations are really nice in the clothing. I’m drawn to the way the light catches the edges of their features. The details pull us in, one face, one detail at a time. Evans was influenced by artists like Eugène Atget, who documented the streets of Paris with a similar sense of quiet observation. But Evans made the style his own, pushing photography to a new level of artistic expression. What he’s captured here is like a slice of life.