WALKER EVANS
Beauties of the Common Tool: a portfolio by Walker Evans, originally published in 1955.
“Among low-priced, factory-produced goos, none is so appealing to the senses as the ordinary hand tool. Hence, a hardware store is a kind of offbeat museum show for the man who responds to good, clear ‘undesigned’ forms.”
– Walker Evans
In the July 1955 issue of Fortune Magazine, the American photographer Walker Evans celebrated iconic hand tools in a photographic essay, “Beauties of the Common Tool.” Walker photographed Tin snips, a bricklayer’s trowel, chain-nose pliers, and a crate opener which, in Evans’s eyes, were standards of “elegance, candor, and purity.”
DARREN HARVEY REGAN
In 1955, Fortune magazine published, ‘Beauties of the Common Tool’, a portfolio by Walker Evans featuring pictures of ordinary hand-made tools, such as a ratchet wrench and a pair of scissors. Regan was greatly inspired by Evans and used Evans images to create his own images
Harvey-Regan first constructed a montage of Evans’s images to make new forms. He then sourced matching tools, cut them in half and re-joined various halves together, with the resulting physical objects being photographed to create his final work. The montaged tools become both beautiful and bizarre objects, in which a ratchet wrench is combined with a pair of pliers and a Mason’s trowel joined with a pair of scissors.
OBJECT PHOTOSHOOT
In the studio we used a product table with a flash lighting system, a copy stand with flash light, and coloured backdrops with soft box lighting in order to photograph our objects.
COLOURED BACKDROP SETUP
We played with shadows and lighting to create images with different shadow compositions.
OVERHEAD SETUP
We used an overhead setup for object photography in order to create images inspired by Walker Evans. It kept things efficient while shooting and produced clear photos as we did not have to keep adjusting the camera. We also used artificial lighting (flash) in order to minimise shadows.
INFINITY CURVE SETUP
The infinity curve setup enabled us to take photos with a plain background and good lighting
