Walker Evans –

1955 – “Beauties of the common tool.”

Darren Harvey-Regan –

2013 – “Beauties of the common tool, Rephrased II.”

Taking inspiration from Walkers work in the 1950’s, Darren Harvey-Regan made his own attempt on his original photoshoot.

Walker Evans –

As Walker Evans puts it, “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 ‘un-designed’ forms”. This can be vividly shown through his portfolio he named “beauties of the common tool”. Using Objects he had in his home, Evans was able to create his photos, using props to make the tools look as if they have a 3D levitated affect. Using what he had, his overhead lighting of his home, was the desired effect he wanted to use to diminish the opacity of shadows had on the objects, This allowed lots of texture and clarity to be seen on the tools.

(His portfolio can be found here).

https://fotoform.co/walker-evans-beauties-of-the-common-tool

Darren Harvey-Regan –

Inspired by Evans work, Harvey-Regan put together his own portfolio named ‘Beauty of the common tool, rephrased II’, in which he sawed and then re-welded separate tools together. Advantaged by the modern era, he was also able with studio lighting and editing software to alter his photos to reduce shadows from his photoshoot, Rather than relying on what was around like Evans.

(Under the same name of Evans portfolio, Harvey-Regans work can be found here)

https://www.theravestijngallery.com/artists/

comparison –

Photographing the same genre of still life, both photographers are similar in their composition, however they differ in lighting, texture and clarity. Lighting is noticeably different as Walkers objects shine with the reflection of light, whilst Harvey-Regan’s do not or just slightly.

A similarity they both share can be seen with the use of a Birds Eye shot, capturing their still life images from a camera angle of 90 degrees.

By Using a plain white background Harvey-Regan’s photos are able to be directly focused on whilst Evans allows the grainy texture of the film he used to generate an aesthetic to the objects within the picture.

my personal attempt –

Walker Evans style:

Inspired by the Evans use of partial shadows and reflections of light, i tried to recreate that in this photo.

Darren Harvey-Reagan style:

By using photoshoot i attempted to remove any noticeable details leaving a plain white background and limited shine on the tools like Harvey-Regans work.