Roadside Restaurant 1936

Walker Evans made this gelatin silver print, Roadside Restaurant, and it gets right to the point. The flat lighting and focus on texture become the main event. Look at the clapboard siding of the River Hill Cafe, how the sun bleaches out the details. Evans isn’t hiding anything, but he’s not exactly showing off either. The surface is everything. The Coca-Cola sign looms large, a monument to everyday life. It’s a study in contrasts, the ephemeral nature of roadside attractions versus the enduring appeal of a cold soda. My eye keeps going back to the shadow cast by the telephone pole, slicing right through the frame. It’s like a painterly gesture, a bold stroke that disrupts the scene and forces you to reconsider the composition. Evans, like fellow photographer Robert Frank, understood the poetics of the vernacular and found beauty in the mundane. It’s a reminder that art can be found in the most unexpected places.