Street Scene, New Orleans, Louisiana, December 1935
Gelatin silver print
20.7 x 25.4 cm (8-3/16 x 10 in.)
84.XM.129.8

Evans's most often-reproduced body of work was created in a three-year creative explosion between the summer of 1935 and the summer of 1938. Toward the end of 1935, he visited Louisiana on assignment for the Farm Security Administra- tion, and it was there that he made this picture. Although it has a documentary appearance, the photograph owes more to French art than might at first be ex- pected. Evans had visited France and respected its cultural life. Tristan Tzara described the power of French Dadaism to transform incongruous elements into an "unexpected, homogeneous cohesion as soon as they take place in a newly created ensemble." Evans shared this conviction with the artists of Dada.
(WALKER EVANS related to-->> 168, 169, 174, Japanese)

related: web site -->>
• Masters of Photography
• Photographs from the FSA and OWI
• New York Times: Eyes Wide Open
• Walker Evans Project