This photograph offered here is a close variant of the image Evans reproduced in his 1938 book, American Photographs, and was made during the same photographic session. In the present photograph, Evans places the structure front and center, letting it dominate the frame, creating a stage-set like setting for its three figures. The published version, made from a different image, shows more of the surrounding countryside. Significantly, it was this print selected for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Walker Evans retrospective in 2000.
This photograph comes originally from the collection of Alfred H. Barr, Jr., the first director of The Museum of Modern Art. Barr was introduced to Evans and his work by Lincoln Kirstein, who would later write the introduction to American Photographs. This initiated a long relationship between Evans and MoMA, with Evans working for a time as a staff photographer and, later, becoming one of the photographic artists most associated with the museum.
