Walker Evans – “Many are Called” (1938)

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raydm6

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Walker Evans – “Many are Called” (1938) – AMERICAN SUBURB X

Fascinating 3-year portraiture study captured with a hidden camera. He was accompanied by Helen Levitt to avoid suspicion.

It appears he used a Contax (according to this article) and one of the negative strips showed "Ultra Speed PAN" film.

Between 1938 and 1941, Evans produced a remarkable series of portraits in the New York City subway (1971.646.18). They remained unpublished for twenty-five years, until 1966, when Houghton Mifflin released Many Are Called, a book of eighty-nine photographs, with an introduction by James Agee written in 1940. With a 35mm Contax camera strapped to his chest, its lens peeking out between two buttons of his winter coat, Evans was able to photograph his fellow passengers surreptitiously, and at close range. Although the setting was public, he found that his subjects, unposed and lost in their own thoughts, displayed a constantly shifting medley of moods and expressions—by turns curious, bored, amused, despondent, dreamy, and dyspeptic. “The guard is down and the mask is off,” he remarked. “Even more than in lone bedrooms (where there are mirrors), people’s faces are in naked repose down in the subway.”
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https://publicdelivery.org/walker-evans-many-are-called/

How he managed to stay undetected

Walker knew that he would need a solid plan to capture the raw vulnerability on people’s faces; the camera must be well-hidden. For that, he covered his 35-millimeter camera in such a way that the chrome, shiny parts were black and well hidden under his topcoat. Now, only the lens peeked out from between two buttons.

The photographer rigged the shutter with a cable release. He then attached the chord to his sleeve. The button landed into the palm of his hand. His palm remained in his pocket so that it would stay undetected. To go further unnoticed by the passengers, he thought someone must accompany him. For that, he asked his friend and fellow photographer Helen Levitt to join him on his subway rides.
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Walker Evans' candid photos of 1930s subway passengers are early conceptual art
 
Interesting, very much. Back in the 70’s Jason Schneider hid a spring wound Ricoh auto half frame under a polo shirt to catch candid photos. Don’t remember how he masked the sound of the spring winding on. He wrote an article about it in pop photo or modern, cannot remember now. I lived in Chicago at the time and was used to taking pictures with the subject unaware. My favorite for that was a little (for the time) Olympus Pen half frame. The 2 blade copal was nearly silent and wind on was very quite also.
 
ptpdprinter said:
Fabulous photos. No APO lens required. Sort of makes you think a reset to your whole approach is needed.
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Indeed! It definitely puts things in perspective and makes the overindulgence of gear talk here seem a little silly (myself included).

There's a humanity in his photos that transcends the equipment; even with non-human subjects - especially his photographs of older America. Those photographs pull me in, evoke a feeling of nostalgia and longing, and makes me want to be there to experience that time.

A true master.
 
raydm6 said:
Indeed! It definitely puts things in perspective and makes the overindulgence of gear talk here seem a little silly (myself included).

There's a humanity in his photos that transcends the equipment; even with non-human subjects - especially his photographs of older America. Those photographs pull me in, evoke a feeling of nostalgia and longing, and makes me want to be there to experience that time.

A true master.
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An interesting example of how time changes our perceptions. I too feel that sense of nostalgia and longing, but I believe that Evans' intentions were frequently other than that. He was a fiercely political person with strong leftist sentiments. The decades have somewhat taken that edge off his photographs.
 
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