Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Steve Schaefer" 
<sschaefer50@...> wrote:
>
>  " he was primarily a fine art photographer, not a documentarian. "
> 
> 
> I know this is getting off the subject but here it goes anyway.
> 
> I have worked as a photojournalist for several years and have 
recently
> finished up my MFA in a program that is strongly baste in conceptual
> art; I am having a hard time understanding how you make a 
distinction
> between someone that works in a documentary style and a fine art
> photographer. It seems to me that these to should be considered one
> and the same.
> 
> If you think that documentary style photography is not a bona fide 
art
> form  you should take a longer look at this kind of work. There 
really
> is some amazing work out there
> 
> Sorry about this early morning rant.
> 
> Steve
>


Steve - Evans said it himself (and you also say it in a way) - he 
said he worked "in the documentary style" but he was not a 
documentary photographer. He made a clear distinction between 
documentary and documentary style. 

He addresses exactly this and making photographic art in an interview 
in the book Walker Evans: Incognito

One clear difference in this is that objectivity, for instance, is 
not an overriding concern. Which isn't to say Evan's work never 
displays a clear truth - in fact, quite the contrary.

(and he did see himself as essentially an artists. The many jobs he 
had allowed him to pursue that - sometimes - as with the FSA/OWI 
while wearing the mantle of "documentary photography". But it was 
always pretty clear he often went his own way, doing his own thing 
[e.g. he had clashes with his bosses at the FSA because he wasn't 
following their shooting scripts - thank goodness]. Even when he 
taught at Yale, he didn't teach the way the faculty wanted, but in 
his own way....)