Walker Evans. Now and Then

FEB.26.2026    MAY.24.2026

A black and white photograph of two women sitting in a New York City subway car. Both appear older and are dressed in formal coats. One woman wears a dark hat and has a thoughtful expression as she looks to the side, while the other woman, wearing glasses and a distinctive hat, looks straight ahead with a serious expression. The image captures a scene from everyday life with a direct and analytical style, typical of Evans's photography.

Walker Evans
Subway Passengers, New York, 1938
Vintage gelatin silver print
Private Collection, San Francisco
© Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Exhibition

 

FEB.26.2026​   MAY.24.2026

Where

KBr Photography Center
Avenida Litoral, 30 – 08005 Barcelona

Walker Evans. Now and Then offers a renewed look at the career of one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century. In a broad anthology bringing together images made over more than fifty years, the exhibition invites viewers to rediscover the direct, restrained, and analytical gaze with which Evans documented everyday life in the United States. Far from the theatrical, the artist championed precise and honest photography, always attentive to the cultural and social context.

The exhibition is structured around several essential threads of his work: his interest in the signs of the city (shop signs, storefronts, billboards, etc.), through which Evans captured a compelling reflection of the collective identity of his era; anonymous individuals (pedestrians, subway riders, workers), whom he portrayed with a spontaneity that blends formal precision and deep respect for his subjects; and his fascination with modest environments and small towns, where he found an authenticity that large cities tended to obscure. Alongside these major axes of his oeuvre, the exhibition also presents his late experiments with the Polaroid camera, which reveal a more intimate shift without losing the clarity of his vision.

Curator: David Campany

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