Shoeshine Sign in Southern Town, 1936 Possibly 1936 - 1974

Walker Evans made this photograph of a Shoeshine Sign in a Southern Town back in 1936. The photograph renders a roadside sign for shoe-shining services, depicting a painted boot hovering above the promise of a “Shine”, with shoe polish applicators lined up on a shelf. Evans had an incredible eye for graphic detail, and I can just imagine him seeing this sign on the road and feeling like he had to pull over and capture it. The texture and the surfaces are incredible; you can see the grain of the wood in the sign, and the outline of the boot is just so perfect, so precise, as if painted by someone who really knew their stuff. Look at how the light catches the bulb in the metal lamp hanging from above, such a satisfying composition. For me, this photograph is a reminder that art is everywhere, and that sometimes the most beautiful things are the ones we least expect. The colors and tonality remind me a bit of some of Bernd and Hilla Becher's photographs, which capture the beauty and strangeness of industrial structures and objects, almost like a typology. Ultimately, the photograph has an open-ended feel to it and celebrates the unexpected beauty that can be found in the everyday.