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[Graffiti: Dead End]

Creator

American Photographer · 1903–1975

MakerAuthorArtist

> 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

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Date: about 1973–1974
Medium: Polaroid SX-70 dye diffusion print
Culture: American
Department: Photographs
Institution: Getty Museum

"After all, I am getting older, and I feel that nobody should touch a Polaroid until he's over sixty," remarked Walker Evans in an interview the year that he died. He was introduced to the instantaneous Polaroid SX-70 camera and color film in 1972 and used it for two years, primarily making portraits of colleagues, friends, and students. Eventually he made more than 2,400 Polaroid images. In this photograph, Evans's familiar love of signs and words is evident in the cryptic message "DEAD END" that has been spray-painted on a metal sign. It is uncanny as well as ironic, given that the Polaroid camera marked a new and fruitful path in Evans's career.

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