Walker Evans was greatly influenced by Darren Harvey-Regan as they both paid close attention to the choice of objects, composition, lighting and exposure levels.

Walker Evans

Walker Evans began photography in the late 1920’s, taking his first snapshots while on his trip to Europe. Then on his return to New York he produced his first set of images. He was best know for taking photographs during the Great Depression, as he was mostly recognised for his documentary and social realism style. Evans then went onto produce his first Portfolio in 1955 called, Beauties of the Common Tool where it features day-to-day objects. The simplicity of only one object displayed, creates this engaging and immersing feature for the viewer, as he wants you to see them for yourself in a different way.

Beauties of the Common Tools

Walker Evans shows simplistic everyday objects displayed in black and white, which creates unique forms and interesting exposure as we get more out of the object. This is effective because he turns the objects into something that’s more distinct and eye catching, rather than just photographing basic tools.

Darren Harvey-Regan

Like Walker Evans, Harvey-Regan was interested in the concept that photographs do not exist just to show things, but are physical things that become objects themselves. Harvey- Regan first created montages of Walker Evan’s work, where he would find matching tools, cut them in half and rejoin them to create his final work. The objects he would find were both interesting and unusual as this would engage the viewer and overall make it more distinct.

Here are my 3 final images:

I chose these three as they are all very unique yet still have a nostalgic effect due to the old, worn objects :). I also think they will look good next to each other.

Then, I decided to Make them all B/W as the theme is nostalgia, and B/W images brings out a nostalgic feel for many people including me. B/W also removes any distraction of colour and helps the viewer focus on other aspects of the photo, such as the subject, the textures, shapes and patterns, and the composition. Contrast is also more noticeable with B/W photographs, which can bring out more emotion. For example, the middle photo of the book has a powerful and dark shadow due to the continuous, directional light used. This makes the book more noticeable, increasing the emotion from the image.

Here, I split up one of my final images using the triptych method. I think I makes it look very clean and professional.

Walker Evans

Walker Evans was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans’ work from the FSA period uses the large format, 8×10-inch view camera.

Evans’ most famous photo was a portrait of Allie May Burroughs- a farmer’s wife, and mother of four – whose unforgettable eyes seem to stare right through us – is one of the most firmly embedded images in American consciousness.

This is some examples of Walker Evans’ work, where he takes simple flat photographs of different tools and then makes them black and white and maybe even give them a reflection or shadow to create dark, old, almost scary feel to the photographs. Also, they all don’t use any colour only shadow colours like grey, black and white and some pictures he gave an almost floating effect by using no shadow by using extra lights which also helps capture all the details on each tool.

Darren Harvey-Regan

Darren Harvey-Regan is a graduate of the Royal College of Art. His work has appeared in exhibitions and publications internationally and is part of the permanent photography collection at the V & A Museum, London.
Darren is an accomplished Leader with a focus on designing culture, strategic thinking, change management, operational design, HR and project leadership.

Darren Harvey-Regan’s photos are very bold and powerful and this picture in particular has a very strong contrast between the block and the shadow. This makes the object used stand out and look more powerful. The use of shape and line in this image makes the object appear more interesting to look at and gives the object a different composition.

These photos are actually montages of Walker Evans’ work when many people think it is Darren Harvey-Regan’s work.