Walker Evans: Polaroids

Why Are Walker Evans Polaroid So Impactful?

Personal Reflection 

Sources:




Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 - April 10, 1975) was known primarily for his work during the Great Depression documenting the severity that the Great Depression had on the working class. He was hired by the government to document the moments of the Great Depression and he approached this very unintentionally with the shots he took but just to capture the moments. In 1973 he bought a Polaroid SX-70 and described it as how 'New Toy' which opened a new light into photography striping it back to the basics of capturing what you see. I love this philosophy of photography and so often I am bogged down by choice fatigue when it comes to settings, composition, and gear. Styles like this make me want to be the new Fuji x100v that uses film presets that are highly accurate to emulate film. I think gear like this would be a ton of fun to have as it's so pocketable and allows a point and shoot approach that captures raw moments of people being people. I have 3 film point and shoots and I think I might adopt this approach with those camera to try and a similar concept of documenting the people in my life and how they have effected me. Walker Evans polaroid portraits are so impactful to me because they highlight the human experience without dwelling on nitty gritty. It's purely about the subject and capturing those moments, this is why I think they stand the test of time as well as they do. 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Final Project

Image
Final Project Reflection  My final project was aimed to analyze the similarities and differences between my Father and I's mental health. I wanted to represent this project in an obtainable way to an gallery audience that would enable the content to relatable and fairly easy to interpret but also to be personal enough for me that it has deeper meaning. The style of photos I chose and created relied on heavy contrast which was achieved by using the red filters to get the perfect amount of black but maintain the highlights. In class we spoke about how happy accidents are real part of this project specifically looking at  how the photos of me have a lot more white and the photos of my dad are have a lot more black. I find this unique and could portray a deeper meaning not obtainable by the audience member but open to interpretation.  For this project I did a lot of testing in the dark room and fell in love with the enlargement process. This is the first time I have actually ...
Read more

A - Z assignment

Image
For this assignment I wanted to limit myself to taking photos of things that had to do with cars only. That being license plates parking signs, and car models.  I cropped everything in vertical fashion and stiches them together into this even square structure that I find compelling. It is meant to invite the user in nice and close to figure out what is even going on. I love it.
Read more

Pinhole Photography Project

Image
  Pinhole Photography Assignment Reflection Overall I enjoyed the assignment and felt that I learned a handful about the photographic process and gained a new appreciation for photography. My mind was blown by how simple yet complex a pinhole can be and that essentially anything can be a pinhole camera. The photos you get when using a pinhole camera have such a unique look, and I think that's what I like most about pinhole. The grunginess of the photos really leans itself to my style of photography; people often will use photoshop to get this look, but though trial and error, pinhole just does it for you. In conclusion, I would happily do pinhole again and think I could vastly improve upon my previous designs and photos with the knowledge I gained during this assignment.  "Where my eyes cannot go"  For this photo, I was inspired to try and replicate what it might look like if you could see through the world and everyone walked on glass. I had my subject on a ledge with on...
Read more