Photographer Walker Evans is best known for his images depicting the Great Depression. In the summer of 1936, he and writer James Agee spent eight weeks in the \u201cDust Bowl\u201d of the American South, and many of the images he took that year are now iconic; although the article he and Agee were sent to write never came about, the work they did formed the basis of the book \u201cLet Us Now Praise Famous Men\u201d, and many were included in the 1938 \u201cWalker Evans: American Photographs\u201d exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.<\/p>\n
This was a groundbreaking exhibition; it was the first time that the museum had devoted an exhibition entirely to the work of a single photographer. Other new conventions were formed around this exhibition \u2013 in the book that accompanied it, a declaration at the front informed readers that the pictures were intended to be looked at in their given sequence; this was a new idea, that there was not just art in the individual pictures but in the sequence of a group of pictures, too.<\/p>\n
That book was instrumental in gaining acceptance for photography as a bona fide art form, as well as giving rise to the modern photography art book. It is now available in its fifth edition, to coincide with the current 75th<\/sup> anniversary of the original exhibition and a new exhibition of American Photographs at the MoMA.<\/p>\n Evan\u2019s work has been influential not just in the field of photography but beyond, inspiring literature, film and all kinds of visual arts. “Photography isn’t a matter of taking pictures,” he said. “It’s a matter of having an eye.”<\/p>\n Of course, the camera helps. If you\u2019re thinking of upgrading your camera to a better model, the Camera Exchange Store is an excellent place to sell used Nikon cameras<\/a>, as well as other makes, and with the cash you receive you could upgrade and \u2013 who knows \u2013 perhaps you could have your own exhibition at the MoMA one day.<\/p>\n