Walker Evans

about Walker Evens

Walker was an American photographer who was widely known for his farm security administration work. most of his work was done with 8 x 10 inch view camera (a large format). Evans said this about his images of tools

“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 ‘undersigned’ forms.”
Walker Evans

Walker Evans – Beauties of the common tool – 1955

Walker evens began photography in the 1920s and was very well known his black and white photos he liked to show of the shadows in his photos by using the low light technique.

to make his photos Evens decides to make an infinity background effect and uses an overhead light to make an sort of shadows that were supposed to be there disappear to focus purely just on the tools and nothing else hence why the shoot is named “the beauties of the common tool”. this allows all the texture and the details of the tools to come to light.

Daren Harvey-Regan

Beauties of the Common Tool, Rephrased II, 2013
Fibre-based handprint, mounted, wooden frame with museum glass

Harvey-Regan recreates Evens by taking tools and making them main interest of the photo but puts his own twist to it by taking apart tools and putting them backing together with a different piece. and as he was a more modern photographer he was able to have better lighting by using studio lights making the photo having no dark patches where as Evens did. this meant that Harvey-Regan was able to bring out more texture and clarity in his photos.

Comparison

the main difference between the two respected photos is the fact that the modern equipment is able to out perform the old equipment meaning its able to bring out more out of the tools giving its more texture and visual quality.

however they both have the same ideas

my person attempt

for this photo I decided to take inspiration from Harvey-Regan as i wanted to have no shadow to make the tool stand out more to show off its ruff texture.