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Walker Evans

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Photographer

The Resume

    (November 3, 1903-April 10, 1975)
    Born in St. Louis, Missouri
    Worked for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) during the Great Depression
    Photographer and editor for 'Fortune' (1945-65)
    Best known for the book 'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men' (text by James Agee; 1941)

Why he might be annoying:

    He originally planned to be a novelist, but said, 'I wanted so much to write that I couldn't write a word.'
    A biographer wrote of his early career, 'He resented both the American's preoccupation with money and the fact that he had none of his own.'
    When 'Fortune' magazine interviewed descendants of the sharecroppers featured in 'Now Let Us Praise Famous Men' (2005), several complained that their families had been 'cast in a light that they couldn't do any better, that they were doomed, ignorant.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    The owners of the land worked by the sharecroppers of 'Now Let Us Praise Famous Men' unsuccessfully tried to scuttle the project by telling the farmers that Agee and Walker were Soviet agents.
    He was the first photographer to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (1938).
    He eschewed gimmicks and fancy equipment, saying 'Photography isn't a matter of taking pictures. It's a matter of having an eye.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 20.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 77.78% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 7 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 17 Votes: 52.94% Annoying