View the image by Walker Evans on this page and describe what you can actually see (objective analysis) and what you think the image is about (subjective analysis).
Discuss how effective Walker Evans has been in using a landscape image to communicate a point of view. Can this photograph be considered as Art? Give two reasons to support your answer.
Make sure you include the image in your blog post with credit in the citation. When you analyze the photo, look for deeper meaning beyond the literal description of the Photo.
| Bethlehem, Graveyard and Steel Mill - Walker Evans 1935 © Walker Evans Archive, 1994, The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
My Response
I believe Walker Evans was effective in his use of this landscape image to document a time in American history. Walker Evans was tasked by the FSA (Farm Security Administration) to document American life during the great depression, and this picture is one of the results of that task. I believe this image can be considered art because despite being meant to document an era, it can still draw an emotional response from whoever views it and the picture expresses an idea that gets people (or, at least me) to think.
The message that this images gives me is that you work, you go home, and then you die, but the world keeps going on without you. I get the first part of that message because of the order of the buildings: factories in the back, houses in the middle, and then the graveyard in the foreground. The last part comes from the observation that the far right factory has smoke coming out of the plume still. I could be wrong, but since Evans never said that there was a specific message within the image, everything is up for interpretation.
No comments:
Post a Comment