Walker Evans

Walker Evans, 1937Edwin Locke/Farm Security Administration [Public Domain] via Wikimedia CommonsWalker Evans was born in 1903 and was one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. 

Allie Burroughs, symbol of the Great DepressionWalker Evans/US Farm Security Administration [Public Domain] via Wikimedia CommonsHis most famous work is of rural poverty in the United States for the Farm Security Administration, when he was photographing the effects of the Great Depression. He eschewed the idea of fine art photography, salon photography and other static photography for a probing, gritty, humanistic style that sought to capture something deeper in his subjects. He disliked sentimentality and refused to show his subjects as objects of pity. He then worked on a book with James Agee called Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Agee wrote the text and he created the images.

Alabama SharecroppersWalker Evans [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Evans was a great influence on the idea of street photography, of photographing people in their natural element. He aimed for "visual impact" in his work, something he said was deliberately vague. He prized intuition, and did not care much for the technical aspects of printing his work, but rather about obtaining the image. He died in 1975, but left many oral histories behind which have been archived in the Smithsonian.