Bridgeport, Connecticut 1941

Walker Evans made this photograph, Bridgeport, Connecticut, with gelatin silver. The photo's starkness feels revealing. There's a kind of evenness in the light, letting everything have its say. Look at the woman adjusting her hat. You see every little detail in her patterned dress, and the way the fabric folds and drapes. Evans wasn't hiding anything. It’s a surface that's not trying to be anything other than what it is: a record. That lack of fuss reminds me of the Bechers, with their grids of industrial structures. Both are interested in the act of looking, pure and simple. There is something very beautiful and thought-provoking about it. What do you think?