CONNECTING WALKER EVANS WITH AN IMAGE IN GREECE
Walker Evans was a man who could take a picture of a human face and turn that image into a political message for the masses of his country, the United States of America. When the US Government hired Evans to document what was happening throughout the States during the era of the Great Depression, Evans and his camera came upon people who had become consumed by the tragedy of poverty and were in need of a voice. Evans helped provide those people with that voice by capturing their hardening moments and conflicted emotions with his photos, allowing the rest of the country and those individuals in political power to see what had become of their fellow citizens. Evans’ photos sent a surge of humanitarian outcry through the halls and offices of Washington D.C and played a major role in correcting policy concerned with reversing the plight of farmers and rural Americans and for that the United States is forever in Evans debt.
During this past July I traveled throughout Greece, across its various islands and deep into the mainland. Greece has been, for the last few years, going through an economic depression that has hit the country hard, affecting from one degree to another the daily lives of all Greek citizens. There were many images displaying this depression that I was able to zone in on with my camera, setting off many contrasts for me between Greece’s history and its present. When thinking about which photo best represented a work of Evans’, I thought of the picture I took while staying in the city of Thessalonica in northern Greece and how a painting on a wall captured and represented to me the decaying situation of Greece’s state of affairs. I was walking along the ancient Byzantine walls of the city, in a run-down district by the water and a few political offices, when I saw the painting of an upscale woman on the side of a building. I immediately noticed how faded the painting had become and my mind went right to connecting that with the current economic disaster. The painting appeared to be from either the 1940s, 1950s or 1960s from the way the woman is dressed in the styled hat and fur coat. To my eyes the very placement of this woman in that area of the city, seemingly forgotten by others and neglected by city officials, revealed to me how Greece’s society was becoming even more polarized between those gaining from the depression and those suffering heavily. This woman encompassed past elegance, staring down onto the streets below with a face of upscale prominence that seemed out of place. Partially hidden by the tree I felt the people in that part of the city were purposely allowing nature to cover this elegant reminder, attempting to replace her with a blank wall, even if it was only for their minds.
The level of poverty I witnessed during my time in Greece effortlessly poured across the city streets and island towns into my eyes and camera. This particular photo resides in the mind as a clear connection with Evans due to what I gathered as a meaning behind the fading woman. State depression was on the lips of everyone I encountered and though their plight did not completely remind me of 1930s America, I did see how that depression was able to affect an entire nation. The Woman In A Fur Coat was able to silently shout that effect onto Greece from her place behind a tree and an ancient wall and though the people may try to hide her from their eyes, they still know she is there and never wavering from her unsettling pose and direct gaze.
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