Bridgeport, Connecticut 1941

Walker Evans made this photograph, Bridgeport, Connecticut, using black and white film. Look at how Evans’s eye captures these two men walking—they appear so stoic, and yet also vulnerable. I wonder, was he hanging out on the street corner waiting, or did he see them in passing and quickly raise his camera? I like to think that Evans was patient, and waited for the moment that felt right. The figures are cut off by the frame, so we don’t see their feet or their heads, but they are there and together. The shadows cast by their hats almost obscure their eyes, a way of partially hiding them. Evans wasn’t interested in glorifying his subjects, he was trying to show the world as it was, plain and simple. It's like he’s saying, “Here are these guys; make of them what you will." His works are a reminder to find beauty in the ordinary, and dignity in the everyday. We can all learn something from that.