Walker Evans / America (2000)

A film by Sedat Pakay

10/02/2000

Overview

Walker Evans/America profiles the great American photographer Walker Evans (1903-1975), whose style influenced a entire generation of photographers. He is best known for his collaboration with writer James Agee on the book "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men", which illustrated the plight of tenant farmers during the Great Depression. A pioneer of the documentary style of photography, Evans was the first photographer to have a one-man retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art. His photographs, from southern sharecroppers to New York subway riders, are point-of-view images that reflect his distinctive vision of America. Walker Evans/America contains rare interviews with Evans himself, recorded by filmmaker Sedat Pakay while a student at Yale University in the late 1960s.