Review: The fascinating story behind the photograph
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 24, 2012
We've all seen the photographs of Depression-era people and families in this country. Author Jerry L. Thompson takes us behind the scenes of one well-known photograph and examines the lives of both the photographer and his subject. Walker Evans was a talented photographer who was just starting out in his chosen profession when he hooked up with writer James Rufus Agee, and the two of them headed for the American South on a project for Fortune Magazine. In 1936, while on this assignment, Evans' photographed Ellie Mae Burroughs, the young wife of a tenant farmer in Hale County, Alabama. This haunting photograph would in time become a symbol of poverty and human tenacity during the Great Depression.The author covered the lives of Evans and Agee and the impact that their work for Fortune magazine would have, even long after all the principals involved had passed on. As an avid amateur photographer, I was extremely impressed to read how Evans worked with both a large-format view camera and a smaller Leica. His most serious work - portraits - was done with the view camera, which required a lot of skill and patience. The use of flash bulbs for fill-in flash was just coming into play in the early 1930s, and was a hit-or-miss proposition with the comparatively crude equipment of the day. Coupled with the vagaries of the equipment of that era was the fact that Evans' darkroom was a thousand miles away, which meant that he was "shooting in the dark," so to speak.I was also impressed to learn that Evans and Agee didn't just pop in and ask to take a quick series of photos, then leave to find other subjects. In some cases, as with the Burroughs family, they actually moved into their home and got to know the family, even participating in their daily life.Several decades later, Evans and Agee and others who did similar work during the Great Depression came under criticism for "parading the nakedness, disadvantage and humiliation of those lives" in the name of journalism and for money. It was interesting to read of various comments and defenses of their work over the years.Overall, "The Story of a Photograph" was a fascinating tale of a famous photograph and the people behind it.