Getty Museum
Railroad Station, Edwards, Mississippi
Creator
Walker EvansAmerican Photographer · 1903–1975
All works by this person →> Leaving aside the mysteries and the inequities of human talent, brains, taste, and reputations, the matter of art in photography may come down to this: it is the capture and projection of the delights of seeing; it is the defining of observation full and felt. > > -- Walker Evans Walker Evans began to photograph in the late 1920s, making snapshots during a European trip. Upon his return to New Y
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1936
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Culture
- American
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
- Object ID
- 94d6d21b-6eff-427d-90eb-a474ada227ac
From the Getty Museum record
From an elevated position, perhaps standing on a bridge or trestle, Walker Evans photographed railroad tracks receding around a bend in a small town. Several men huddle around a curb at the end of the station platform, while a solitary man carrying a package makes his way along the tracks beside a lingering snowbank. The blank gray sky, the heavy clothing on the figures, and the leafless trees in the background suggest the chill of winter. The image conveys sadness and a sense of desolation, despite the presence of people. Pushcarts sit abandoned between the tracks, and no trains stand at the station, and no passengers wait on the platform. The cars parked across from the station allude to the growing popularity of traveling by automobile rather than railroad.
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