Street Scene, Vicksburg, Mississippi

Four men are standing or sitting in front of a barber’s shop with a wooden façade and signboards. The photographer stood some distance away from this scene, which he captured in a carefully balanced composition. Walker Evans took this photograph for the Resettlement Administration (better known by its later name, the Farm Security Administration). The intention was to photograph the impact of the Great Depression in rural America in order to gain support for the New Deal, President Roosevelt’s political reforms. However, Evans refused to take photographs that were explicitly political or propagandist. This sunlit scene is an example of his fascination with the everyday, vernacular culture of provincial American towns with their churches, streets, shops and gathering places. He described his style of photography as “detachment and record.” This approach differs dramatically from the journalistic photography of the 1930s, which owed its vibrancy to the speed of the 35mm camera (the Leica), while Evans generally employed a slow and precise large-format camera.