Getty Museum
Arrows
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
- about 1974
- Medium
- Polaroid dye diffusion print
- Culture
- American
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
An assortment of commonplace white traffic arrows painted on asphalt did not escape the lens of Walker Evans, who treated signage of every type with an equal amount of attention. Letters and symbols, whether painted freehand or with stencils, were all of interest to him. He made this picture from a pedestrian's viewpoint, which resulted in a dynamic angular perspective. The photograph's snapshot-like quality betrays the camera Evans used to capture this image: the newly introduced "absolute one-step" Polaroid. The simple Polaroid camera was a liberating tool for him in his later years. Rejuvenated by this new technique, Evans claimed that it could "extend [his] vision and . . . open up new stylistic paths."
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