AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHS by Walker Evans

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), 2012
8 × 9 in
208 pages
Tritone printing
Hardcover
Cloth wrap

Walker Evans: American Photographs was first published by The Museum of Modern Art as a carefully prepared, deluxe letterpress edition to accompany an exhibition of photographs by Evans that captured scenes of the United States in the early 1930s.

It has been out of print for long periods since its original publication date of 1938. Subsequent editions—two of which altered the design and typography of the book in small but significant ways—are often unavailable outside libraries and rare book stores. This 75th anniversary edition faithfully re-creates the original design with the aid of new digital printing technology, making the landmark publication available for a new generation.

More than any other artist, Walker Evans (1903–1975) invented the images of an essential America that we have long accepted as fact, and his work has influenced not only modern photography but also literature, film, and visual art in other mediums.

“Part of a photographer’s gift should be with people… There wasn’t a cent of money around. And these people were in terrible shape, but typically, because everybody else was. And I suppose, without meaning to, that what I was doing was photographing human poverty. I just couldn’t help it. We were all in it. Everybody was desperate. I find that it’s very hard to describe what that was like.” 

—Walker Evans, 1971