“With the camera, it’s all or nothing. You either get what you’re after at once, or what you do has to be worthless. I don’t think the essence of photography has the hand in it so much. The essence is done very quietly with a flash of the mind, and with a machine. I think too that photography is editing, editing after the taking. After knowing what to take, you have to do the editing.”

Centre Pompidou, Paris, offers a widened retrospective of Evans, a feat that has been considered by many an institution over the years. This particular exhibition, however, proposes a thematic approach that looks towards unpublished works, seeking the ultimate breadth of the artist’s career. It invites the public to better understand what is undoubtedly the core of Walker Evans’ work: the passionate search for the fundamental characteristics of American vernacular culture.

Ends 14 August. For more information: www.centrepompidou.fr

Credits:
1. Walker Evans, Private Collection. Garage in Southern City Outskirts, 1936.