Wooden Houses, Boston 1930

Walker Evans made this photograph of wooden houses in Boston, using a large format camera. What hits you first is the flatness, a quality that almost turns the buildings into a kind of stage set. Look at the way the light falls: it reveals the texture of the wooden clapboard, yet flattens the space. The tonal range is limited, pushing the image into abstraction. This isn't about depth, but about surface. The details in the woodwork, the railings, and the shutters become graphic elements, almost like strokes of paint. Evans' approach feels related to Atget, but with a more deliberate composition. It reminds us that art is always a conversation, a way of seeing that builds on what came before, transforming it in the process. What Evans does with photography is similar to what Fairfield Porter did with painting: finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, revealing the world around us with clarity and a touch of melancholy.