ABSTRACT
Considered one of the greatest twentieth-century artists, Walker Evans captured American culture within its specific historical context and brought an ethical sophistication to documentary photography. This chapter focuses on the advertising images Evans creates during the Depression, a period generally considered his "most creative", when he works as an information specialist for the Division of Information for the Resettlement Administration. In photographing a myriad of printed and hand-made signs, billboards, and posters, Evans suggests the ironic presence of advertising in twentieth-century industrial society, particularly in his comparison of the actual living conditions with "public symbols of material power." Evans's photographic documentation of Depression-era society often addresses the appropriation of consumer culture and suggests the ironies of depicting "a society of pleasure that is inseparable from the consumer society which gave it birth." Evans's 1936 photograph of a roadside stand near Birmingham, Alabama, otters a lighthearted critique of the domination of advertising in Depression-era society.
