Walker Evans (1903–1975) was an American photographer whose direct, restrained style profoundly shaped documentary photography. During the 1930s he photographed vernacular architecture, signs, interiors and rural communities for the Farm Security Administration. American Photographs and Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, made with James Agee, became foundational photobooks. Darwin selects Evans for treating ordinary objects, buildings and printed language as evidence, establishing a visual archaeology of American social and material culture.
