Walker Evans. The hungry eye

Evans (1903-75) began photographing in 1927, joined Time in 1945, later became editor at Fortune , and ended his career as a professor of graphic design at Yale. The body of work he produced in half a century distinguishes him as one of the most important and influential 20th-century American photographers. This is not the first book to present Evans´s work retrospectively, but this is certainly the most comprehensive. Mora ( Walker Evans: Havana 1933 , Pantheon, 1989) and Hill (Evans´s friend and executor of his estate) provide concise and readable biographical and interpretive essays accompanied by exquisite reproductions. The photo groups are arranged chronologically, with essays introducing each project or period in Evans´s life. Topics range from the Brooklyn Bridge to his work for the Farm Security Administration--including his famous photographs for James Agee´s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men --to the Museum of Modern Art exhibition "American Photographs," reproduced in exact sequence and relative size. Highly recommended for photography and photographic history collections.