New York City 1928 - 1929

Walker Evans made this photograph of New York City, and it's printed on paper. But it isn’t the paper that captures my attention, it’s the wall: a stark elevation of some anonymous building. It's made of bolted steel plate on the upper half, and overlapping wooden planks on the lower half. The image is dominated by a fire escape, casting long, dark shadows. Evans was interested in the built environment, particularly architecture that revealed the unadorned truth of industrial production. Steel and timber, mass-produced and brutally joined, were the very bones of the modern city. The aesthetic of the vernacular wasn’t about beauty, but about utility. Seen in this light, Evans's photograph isn't just a picture, it’s a social document. It asks us to consider the labor, materials, and the economic forces that shaped this urban landscape. It encourages us to see beauty, or at least meaning, in the everyday.