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

Gay Burke American
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

Object Information
  • 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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