Critique on Walker Evans’ ‘Many are Called’
With the massive catapult of technological advancement in today’s day and age, almost everyone owns a smartphone and clicks selfies occasionally creating portraiture which is often posed with a direct gaze. A body of work which envelops a similar snapshot aesthetic with subtle directness is the subway series by Walker Evans called ‘Many are called’. It was a three-year photographic study of unsuspecting passengers on the New York subway which was kept surreptitious. It was shot during the winter months between 1938 and 1941 and finally exhibited in 1966 at the museum of modern art. He slyly hid the camera by strapping it onto his midsection and cloaking it with his overcoat with the lens peeking through the buttonhole. Thus, he produced beautiful images which were absolutely raw, straightforward and candid.
The main concept behind the series is best enunciated by Evans himself: “My idea of what a portrait ought to be: anonymous and documentary, a straightforward picture of mankind. “ The studium of creating absolutely unposed portraits comes across vividly as the pictures seem naked and untampered showing the subway riders in their real self. They are stripped off the superfluous mask or the performance they might have put on, if known about the presence of the photographer. Walker Evans, related to this topic said, “The guard is down and the mask is off. Even more than when in lone bedrooms, where there are mirrors. People’s faces are in naked repose down in the subway.”
The pictures are close up shots of random strangers occupying the foreground who are riding the Subway engaged in their mundane daily routine. Some are indulging in daydreaming, some middle aged women are having their dose of daily gossip, some are derailed in a world of their own and others are engrossed in a newspaper or other reading material. While deciding the subject matter, Evans was attracted to not only people with striking facial expressions but also those dressed in eccentric attire. The subway harbors individuals of all temperaments, social strata, cultures etc. under one umbrella. The series of photographs unites them all together in a unique network via the mode of transit regardless of their social background. It doesn’t matter if they belong to a class of wealthy elitists or the middleclass commoner who is scraping to get by.
The evident use of elements from snapshot photography contributes massively to the whole aesthetic of the photographs. The way many images are shot in a tilted fashion with abrupt cropping illustrates how it seems that the photographer surrendered most of the creative control of photography. Contrary to this, it is a completely conscious decision on the part of the photographer to click the images in this manner. This enhances the theme of timelessness these photographs revolve around which is almost like being frozen in that particular moment in time. The whole snapshot demographic with the casual and chaotic framing deviate the images from having a very formal and perfect illusion, most often seen in professionally shot images. They showcase the imperfections of the human race using the unmediated realness the style of snapshot photography exudes. The very act of using this style is a daring decision, particularly at a time when it wasn’t widely accepted.
The whole ensemble acts as time capsule sucking the viewer into a completely different milieu in the past. Being a metro rider, the nuances of the human behavior, then and now are uncannily similar. An instance of this is how one can observe many people completely lost in thought while a group of women can be seen exchanging gossip just like the pictures shown in the series. However, there are certain distinct differences too such as the clothing, activities done during transit etc. The intent of the photographer might not have been to create a time warp transporting the viewer to history, however since the work acts like one, it relates to a very interesting insight given by Roland Barthes in the phenomenon of ‘Death of the author’. He introduces the concept by arguing how a particular work, once published has a life of its own as it ventures into the world, completely unrelated to the author. This is linked to the ‘birth of the reader’ and ‘death of the author’. This phenomenon fits in this particular context as the work, ‘Many are called’ is viewed in a different light i.e. as a time capsule which might not have fitted in with the original purpose intended for the series by the photographer.
The images, apart from being conceptually rich also have a technical aspect attached to them. The progress of photographic technology led to cameras being much more portable and the film being more sensitive to light. It required exposure times of shorter duration due to which the requirement of people remaining still for a longer period wasn’t necessary. This novel flexibility was very efficiently capitalized by Walker Evans in this particular series.
Albeit Evans is primarily considered to be photojournalist, his work has continually oscillated between documentary photographs and art. It seems to narrow the distance between ‘art and world’. The images inhibit an iridescent quality making them too complex to pass off as just photojournalism. They have a stark contrast when compared to Evans’ earlier work for the Farm security administration wherein he documented the victims at the Dust Bowl. Those pictures seem staged, professional and had a completely disparate aura in comparison to the subway series.
Overall, ‘Many are called’ enraptures the viewer with its seemingly flawed representation of humanity in its unguarded form making it surprisingly endearing.
