Tupelo, Mississippi 1936

Walker Evans captured this image, 'Tupelo, Mississippi,' with a camera, and in monochrome. It's less about grand gestures and more about the subtle textures and structures of everyday life. Look at how the light plays on the weathered wood of the building, creating a range of greys. The overlapping and repeated forms of the roof tiles create a rich visual texture, giving us a glimpse into the process of their construction, one after the other, and their history. The shadow around the figure of the man to the left creates a sense of distance, of being an observer. Evans, like many photographers, was interested in how seeing could be a form of understanding. Think of Bernd and Hilla Becher, with their typologies of industrial structures, or the psychologically charged street photography of Garry Winogrand, all exploring the world through the lens, finding meaning in what's already there. Art always takes what's there and shows it to you anew.