Subway Portrait 1938 - 1941

Curator: Walker Evans's "Subway Portrait," likely taken between 1938 and 1941, part of his famed project documenting ordinary Americans. Editor: Stark. Striking. I’m immediately drawn to the texture of the gelatin silver print, its contrasts, and the anonymity in the subway car as backdrop. There’s an immediacy I find compelling. Curator: The fascinating element is how he achieved this immediacy. Evans used a hidden camera, a 35mm Contax, concealed beneath his coat. This allowed him to capture unguarded moments of unsuspecting passengers. Editor: The act of concealing shifts the perspective doesn't it? How does this influence our understanding of documentary photography, especially in the socio-political climate of the late 1930s, teetering on the edge of global conflict? Were the working classes fully considered by their image-makers at this point? Curator: It absolutely raises ethical considerations. The subjects, unaware, became symbols. He then showcased these individuals, particularly their faces. Editor: Consider too the economic realities; the Depression loomed large. Public transportation signified not just mobility but survival. Each captured face carried a history of labor, migration, and material constraints. What was the artist's means of working; was he an industrial laborer? Curator: Evans, coming from a more privileged background, entered this space of working-class commutes as an observer, subsidized by projects like those funded by the Farm Security Administration. The silver gelatin process itself—mass-reproducible, democratic—becomes integral. Editor: So, photography here serves both as social document and a produced artifact. I'm curious: to what extent do you think viewers at the time were conscious of this production process, these embedded social stratifications? Curator: It is impossible to know entirely. Evans hoped that this candid approach would reveal something more truthful about the American spirit. Today it invites conversation, a kind of social archeology laid out in striking monochromatic simplicity. Editor: Ultimately, what we encounter isn't just an image but an historical document laden with the socio-economic currents of its time—revealing questions about representation, class, and artistic responsibility. Curator: Exactly. "Subway Portrait" serves as a reminder that a simple, almost surreptitious, photograph holds so many layers. Editor: Layers that deepen upon scrutiny. It leaves me thinking about how labor and image-making have always been intertwined and how photographs mediate between the lives we lead and how society perceives them.