Walker Evans: Photographer of America

Nau, Thomas. Walker Evans: Photographer of America. Roaring Brook Press: 2007. ISBN: 159643225X.

This book is about Walker Evans III, who was born on November 3, 1903. Walker Evans always loved literature since a young age and just loved words. It all began in Keniworth, Missouri. He changed schools a lot and applied to Williams College and was accepted, but his lifelong dream was to go to Yale with his upper-class friends. He moved to New York City and went to a library and said he would work for free. He got a job in a map-room delivering requested materials. Walker made a friend named Hanns Skolle. Hanns was a German painter and was the same age as Walker. Walker quit his job in the library and took a steamship, called Cherbourg, to head to Paris, France. He vowed he was going to be a writer. He also met new friends, like Hart Crane, Ben Shahn, and Berenice Abbott. Some of them talked him into being a photographer because they said he wasn't very good at writing. He loved the straight-forward snapshots filled with the detail of life. He took many pictures. He met a girl named Jane Ninas and loved her, but he moved back to New York. He took many more pictures and was called the photographer of America. He died at the age of 72. He also finally got accepted into Yale.

My opinion is that this was a very good book. I liked how he followed his dream and he took pictures that he loved to take and not in the way that other people took pictures. I give this book 2 thumbs up and five stars. The age I recommend this book to is about seventh grade, or someone who loves to take pictures. I just really like this book.

Reviewed by B.M.S., Van Buren 7th Grade