New photography by Ed Pollard captured with a digital camera-2006.

Frame Houses

Artist Walker Evans (American, 1903-1975)

CultureAmerican

DateMarch 1936

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsOverall, Image: 7 1/4 × 9 3/8 in. (18.4 × 23.8 cm)
Overall: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
Overall, Mat: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number85.1.15

On View

Not on view

DescriptionThis is one of a series of gelatin silver prints; FSA photographs in Virginia.

Label TextWalker Evans American (1903-1975) Frame Houses in Fredericksburg, Virginia, 1936 Gelatin-silver print Purchase, Horace W. Goldsmith and Art Purchase Funds 85.1.15 Walker Evans was responsible for the emergence in 1930s American photography of a new, more literary, less dramatic conception of documentary description. Drawing upon the work of French photographer Eugène Atget, Evans made head-on, highly detailed images of Americans and the material manifestations of their indigenous cultures. Employed by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) project from 1935 to 1938, this is one of only two photographs made in Virginia by Evans during that time. Evans' photographs have appeared in several important books, including Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941) on which he collaborated with the writer James Agee. In 1938, Evans had the first solo photography exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In conjunction with the exhibition, a book titled American Photographs was published. The exhibition and book are widely recognized as a landmark event in the history of photography. In addition to this image, Evans made a second frontal view of the same row of houses. The Chrysler Museum collection includes several variant prints of both of those photographs. Exhibition History"Mountaineers to Main Streets: The Old Dominion as seen through the Farm Security Administration Photographs," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, May 3 - June 16, 1985. Published ReferencesBrooks Johnson. _Mountaineers to Main Streets: The Old Dominion as seen through the Farm Security Administration Photographs_. The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA. 1985: p. 13.