Walker Evans, simple secrets

Library Journal

These two books honoring the great American photographer Walker Evans differ in reproduction value and selection. Signs would be slight and disappointing without the excellent text by Romanian poet and National Public Radio commentator Codrescu. The unifying idea for this book--photos that represent Evans's lifelong affection for signs--feels original and yet ultimately limiting as you flip through marvelous black-and-white images like "Roadside Stand Near Birmingham" (1936) and "What, No Garters?" (1946). Visually, the idea probably works more powerfully within the confines of the J. Paul Getty Museum exhibition. Considered purely as a kind of slide show for Codrescu's text, however, the photographs work ably. While it also contains many old favorites, Simple Secrets doesn't limit inclusion by theme. The catalog of a traveling exhibition launched by Atlanta's High Museum of Art, it has plenty of signage but includes much of the rest of the world Evans rendered so memorably. Well-known pictures seem somehow more surprising here. These photos are from the magnificent Hill Collection, which spans five decades of Evans's work, starting with his shadow self-portrait from 1927. The reproductions and layout are superior to that of Signs, and Walker's subway faces, blind musicians, and old men on porches have rarely looked better. Thirteen of the Hill Collection's photographs have never been published. Recommended for all photography collections.--Nathan Ward, "Library Journal"