Getty Museum
St. Martins
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
- 1974
- Medium
- Polaroid dye diffusion print
- Culture
- American
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Walker Evans, who was extremely fascinated by all types of signs and advertisements, made this photograph of a small store while on vacation in the French West Indies. The torn cigarette and candy boxes arranged along an exterior wall effectively notify potential customers of the goods obtainable therein. The proprietor of this shop used company graphics such as Coca-Cola and Marlboro in an innovative way--pasted together like a collage. The signs are vivid examples of typography and graphic design, which Evans also found fascinating. Like the images of general-store signs that Evans made in the rural South, this photograph venerates popular culture. Unlike in those early images, however, he used a Polaroid camera to make this picture. The lightweight one-step Polaroid was a convenient tool for the seventy-year old artist who was sprightly in mind but not in body. Although Evans sometimes referred to the Polaroid as a toy, he enjoyed "its simplicity as well as its color potential."
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