Subway Portrait 1938 - 1941

Walker Evans snapped this subway portrait using a hidden camera, sometime in the mid twentieth century. The graininess gives it a kind of intimacy, like a stolen moment. I love how the gray tones almost flatten the space, pushing the figure against the gridded window. It's all about surface. The texture of the man's coat and hat kind of melts into the subway car's details. It’s so somber and still, yet those subtle shadows suggest a world in constant motion. The soft focus around the edges makes it feel less like a picture and more like a memory. Evans was a master of capturing the everyday, in a way that reminds me of Edward Hopper's lonely cityscapes. Like Hopper, Evans finds a kind of beauty in the mundane, reminding us that there's always more to see if we just take the time to look.