Walker Evans's "counter-aesthetic"

Afterimage, July-August, 2003 by Jane Tormey

During the last two years of his life. Walker Evans took nearly 1000 portraits of friends and students using an SX-70 Polaroid camera in a peculiarly impulsive and uncontrolled way. This body of work constitutes a noticeable departure from the work for which Evans is best known and respected, and introduces an apparently alternative direction. It is significant that up until this point he had worked in a particularly public way whereas these portraits, produced more privately, remain separate from the public domain apart from discussion of his late works more generally. (2) This essay presents Walker Evans as an example of an author's history, which depends on the knowledge/reputation of his familiar work and which perpetuates the perspective from which we view all subsequent work. Archival research of Evans's Polaroid portraits suggests the possibility of a re-presentation of Walker Evans's historiography. Is it possible to reframe such a powerful photographic figure and reposition his legacy?

Evans's writings demonstrate a vocal example of a modernist photographic attitude. However, as he left no direct statement regarding this particular work, these images are without the authority granted by Evans himself, and thus provoke what seems an obvious question: what was his intention and where are these portraits situated within Evans's philosophy and body of work as a whole? Because these are images without a story, they provide an opportunity to explore their unique quality without referring to his "classic" work. Is it possible to intervene in the process of authentication, to see them without the baggage of the author's validation and not for what they represent?

Images Without a Story

As a collection, the Polaroids are remarkable in their consistent and determined attitude. They are bald presentations of individuals without mannerism or style and yet they are distinct, they are compelling, and their directness is palpable. The series consists of single poses and more extensive studied sequences, taken usually at close range and in near succession. The context in which the photographs are taken is arbitrary and indiscriminate, without concern for lighting or positioning. Evans's attention is on the subject; the background is cluttered, askew, or irrelevant, confused with pillows, or bedstead, or chair. With a number of subjects, he set himself a more certain project in the form of very deliberate posing sessions that follow a definite pattern and appear to have been directed in a conventional manner. However, this "posing" deviates from convention in a number of ways: it is opportunistic and careless, the level of closeness to the subject is unusual, and the degree of intrusive scrutiny is obsessive. The images give the appearance of a luminously focal isolation as the subjects stare up at Evans, startled sometimes, (3) and with an element of facial distortion as he pushes the focal length to its limit. This pattern of interaction with the camera is visible in its operation, as one can see the sessions starting fortuitously, subverting any formal preparation, and then continuing with the subject's insouciant participation--this is when the images become more telling. The more intimate series, such as the images of Gay Burke, are less deliberate, triggered by incidental activities like getting into her car or brushing her hair. (4) It is the singular nature of these exchanges and the order of reciprocation beyond the photographic event that distinguishes one series from another and which directly informs their raw quality and energy. The Polaroids describe the continuous subtle interaction in what is going on besides the posing, the complexity and interdependence of relationship, of oppositional parallels. They question and confuse expectations of the photographer as director and photographed subject as performer, lying somewhere between a conversation and the formality of the photographic shoot. The subjects are neither preoccupied with the event of presentation nor fully self-absorbed. They appear to waver between presenting what they imagine is wanted and staying within themselves, and thus maintain a conscious autonomy. (5) The images appear to be intimate portraits yet they emphasize the movement between the extremes of intimacy and distance. It is this instability of role, between the tension of possession, distance, and emotional need that begins to reveal the fragmented and decentred nature of the images.

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The collection of Polaroids portraits presents a series of such paradoxes. The photographer "collects" people in a determinedly objective way, driven by his fascination and a complexity of feeling. An integral subjectivity contradicts the direct method of taking. An evident delight in observation of detail and insignificance disrupts and feeds a rapid, reckless process, facilitated by the easy phenomenon of Polaroid technology. The close shooting demands an element of abandon that denies the possibility of intention, perfect shot, or definitive statement about the subjects. They confront the viewer, making no concessions, and eschew the notion of shared universality. The images are without sentimentality, are uncompromising in their plain statement, and have no pretensions via narrative or comment or metaphoric reference. Relinquishing the photographer's vision, Evans does not impose his "idea" of the subject; his concern is for something besides style or meaningful "good portraiture"--it is more literal and simple. Somehow this frenzy of personal compulsion and un-thoughtful method allows the individual to dominate. In allowing chance to dictate the making of the image and being totally dependent on instinct, this process becomes interestingly unique. It is this in-between place of carelessness and thoughtlessness that disturbs. It is the uncertainty of genre category that indicates this series as an important development between private and public display, between unprofessional and professional project, documentary and taxonomy, and the power and vulnerability of the photographer.