[Walker Evans Using Polaroid SX-70 Camera, Outside King Bros. Wigs]

Person in Photograph Person in photograph Walker Evans American

1973–74

Not on view

In 1973, Gay Burke was hired to teach photography at the University of Alabama where she led the program for 42 years and became known as “the mother of Alabama Art photography.” Concurrent with the start of Burke’s tenure at Alabama, in the fall of 1973 Walker Evans began to use the SX-70 Polaroid camera exclusively. Evans soon travelled to Alabama to revisit some of the sites and themes he had photographed decades before. There, with William Christenberry (an Alabama art department alumnus who was then teaching at the Corcoran School of Art and Design), the trio of photographers set out on a tour of Alabama. Burke presciently trained her camera on Evans.

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Title: [Walker Evans Using Polaroid SX-70 Camera, Outside King Bros. Wigs]
Artist: Gay Burke (American, Dallas, Texas 1946–2017 Tuscaloosa, Alabama)
Person in Photograph: Person in photograph Walker Evans (American, St. Louis, Missouri 1903–1975 New Haven, Connecticut)
Date: 1973–74
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: Image: 7 3/8 × 7 5/16 in. (18.7 × 18.5 cm)
Sheet: 10 × 8 in. (25.4 × 20.3 cm)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Funds from various donors, 2018
Object Number: 2018.169
Rights and Reproduction: Gay Ann Burke
Curatorial Department: Photographs

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