d by
crisscrossed steel
suspension cables. The
geometric cage of
intersecting lines dissects
the financial heart of the
city, emphasizing the
divide between the two
New York City boroughs.
Walker Evans's view hints
at the separate and
uneasy relationship
between the two worlds
connected by the bridge.

Built between 1869 and
1883, the Brooklyn Bridge
was at the time the world's largest suspension bridge and the first to use steel as cable wire. A
symbol of progress in the Industrial Age, it also became a favorite motif for modern painters and
photographers.


About the Artist
Walker Evans (American, 19031975)

"Leaving aside the mysteries and the inequities of human talent, brains, taste, and reputations,
the matter of art in photography may come down to this: it is the capture and projection of the
delights of seeing; it is the defining of observation full and felt." Walker Evans

Walker Evans began to photograph in the late 1920s, making snapshots during a European trip.
Upon his return to New York, he published his first images in 1930. During the Great
Depression, Evans began to photograph for the Resettlement Administration, later known as the
Farm Security Administration (FSA), documenting workers and architecture in the Southeastern Exploring Photographs



Information and Questions for Teaching

Brooklyn Bridge, Walker Evans

states. In 1936 he traveled with the writer James Agee to illustrate an article on tenant farm
families for Fortune magazine; the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men came out of this
collaboration.

Throughout his career Evans contributed photographs to numerous publications, including three
devoted solely to his work. In 1965 he left Fortune, where he had been a staff photographer for
twenty years, to become a professor of photography and graphic design at Yale University. He
remained in the position until 1974, a year before his death.


Questions for Teaching

Using as many details as possible, describe what you see in this image. (This image shows a
view of a city through the cables of a suspension bridge. The foreground of this image is
occupied by the intersecting cables of the bridge. The background consists of three horizontal
bands: the water, the city, and the sky.)

This image is taken from the Brooklyn Bridge, which connects the island of Manhattan to
Brooklyn. What reactions do you think Evans wanted to evoke with this image? (The
crossbeams, which are positioned with such prominence in the image, are strongly reminiscent
of cage bars. Evans may be suggesting the separation between different populations and
places within the same city. Although a bridge is meant to connect two areas together, Evans is
ironically pointing out that two areas can remain isolatedsocially, economicallyeven when
physically connected.)

This image expresses many strong formal qualities. Which of the elements and principles of art
are most strongly represented here? (The foreground of this image consists of strong vertical
and diagonal lines. These lines intersect to form diamond shapes and create positive and
negative space. The vertical lines of the cables are echoed in the vertical lines of the
skyscrapers in the background. There is an interesting contrast in positive and negative space
between the relatively blank sky and water and the view of the city in between, which is
checkered with hundreds of windows. The lines also create a pattern of diamond shapes and
create a repetition across the image. There is also pattern and repetition in the rectangular-
shaped windows in the distant buildings.)

© 2007 J. Paul Getty Trust