'Walker Evans: The Magazine Work', a photography exhibition is on view at Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand from July 30 through September 18, 2016.Walker Evans, a photographer and photojournalist, is one of the most influential artists to work on the photographic medium. His career spanned the period since the emergence of the modern mass media in the 1920s to the full acceptance of the art in the 1960 and 1970s. The exhibition shows Walker Evans from a different perspective, with focus on his printed images, particularly his works for American magazines. Working in both monochrome and color images, the artist used the popular magazines to create a resistant counter-commentary on American society and its values. His works are in stark contrast with the themes of the magazines. He documented images of anonymous people rather than the celebrity culture promoted by the mass media; he rejected the theme of consumerism and put emphasis on valued enduring objects and the persistence of past in the present. His subjects range from automobile junkyards, graffiti, shop window displays and postcards. Evans's photographs in the magazines highlight his understanding of context - the meaning of which are shaped by editing, writing and design. Although experimental and classical, these photo-essays have been overlooked for a long time.Click on the Slideshow for a sneak peek of the exhibition.
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