Blogfinger

By Paul Goldfinger, photography editor @Blogfinger

Walker Evans  (1903-1975) was one of America’s finest photographers.  He usually worked with a large view camera  (the kind that stood on a tripod while the photographer put his head under a black cloth.)   He is best known for his work during the Great Depression when he was part of a famous team from the  FSA—Farm Security Administration, that documented the harsh conditions in the  “dust bowl” in hard-hit states like Oklahoma.

But he also accumulated a large body of work in New York City.  This photo is from 1928 at Coney Island.

It is from a book called New York, New York—The City in Art and Literature,  published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2000.  In this instance the literature was that of lyrics to a song by the great Lorenz Hart. But at Blogfinger, we add another dimension—the actual song–“Manhattan” by Rodgers and Hart:

“We’ll go to Coney and eat baloney on a roll,

In Central Park we’ll stroll, where our first kiss we stole,

Soul to soul.”  (Lorenz Hart)

BOBBY SHORT–a consummate New Yorker.