Walker Evans and Darren Harvey-Regan

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. Born in St. Louis, United stated on the 3rd of November 1903 and died April 10th 1975 in Yale New Haven hospital, United states. Evans studied at Williams College and the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1955, Walker Evans created his first portfolio, Beauties of the Common Tool, which included commonplace items. These are the photos he would take of tools:

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. 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.

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. These are two of his photo art:

Regarding the selection of objects, composition, lighting, and exposure levels, both artists Darren Harvey-Regan and Wlker evans paid close attention to detail. There are certain distinctions between these two painters in addition to their obvious similarities. For instance, Darren Harvey-Regan takes photos of everyday objects while Walker Evans does not change their appearance.