This last week at the the VAG I was able to see their current Walker Evans exhibit twice for free, a glorious experience.Seeing a very larger 30 inches plus version of the Bud Fields family portrait was deeply moving. I have always loved this photography, my Walker Evans favorite and one of my all time top 10 photographs. Not sure the history of this particular image, it was listed as from a private owner. We need shows like this at the AGA, not that damn conceptual art work again and again and yet again.
Of all the times I viewed this photograph, the first time I saw the black cat was when I looked at this large print. I had seen the photo countless times in magazines and books but never a print this large before. There it was at the mothers feet a very skinny half dead looking cat! Who knew?
To see a mans entire life as a photographer on the gallery walls of a major instution at the same time, what a wonderful experience. I hope before I die I can view a retrospective of my work in a simliar manner. When I see everything on that galleries walls with all the viewers interacting with the photographs, I know I will have lived a life worth living.
Of all the times I viewed this photograph, the first time I saw the black cat was when I looked at this large print. I had seen the photo countless times in magazines and books but never a print this large before. There it was at the mothers feet a very skinny half dead looking cat! Who knew?
To see a mans entire life as a photographer on the gallery walls of a major instution at the same time, what a wonderful experience. I hope before I die I can view a retrospective of my work in a simliar manner. When I see everything on that galleries walls with all the viewers interacting with the photographs, I know I will have lived a life worth living.
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| Bud (William Edward) Fields and his sharecropper family. 1936 |
