a unique object, the Lunn Gallery stamp and a Warren J. Coville Collection label on the reverse, framed, Coville Collection, Buhl Collection, James Danziger Gallery, and Guggenheim Museum exhibition labels on the reverse, 1929

Edwynn Houk Gallery, Chicago

Collection of Warren and Margot Coville, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 1987

James Danziger Gallery, New York, 1997

New York, James Danziger Gallery, American Century: Photographs and Visions, 1900-1935, 1997

New York, Guggenheim Museum, Speaking with Hands: Photographs from The Buhl Collection, June - September 2004, and 4 other international venues through 2007 (see Appendix 1)

Palm Beach Photographic Centre, In Good Hands: Selected Works from the Buhl Collection, March 2011

This unique object:

Jennifer Blessing, Speaking with Hands: Photographs from The Buhl Collection (Guggenheim Foundation, 2004), pp. 132 and 214

James Danziger, American Century: Photographs and Visions, 1900-1935 (James Danziger Gallery, 1997), pl. 43

James Danziger, American Photographs: 1900/2000 (Assouline, 1999), pl. 34

This remarkable photogram is on heavy double-weight paper with a semi-glossy surface. The juxtaposition of the deep black of the background with the paper-white of the highlights makes a very dramatic impression. Closer examination reveals subtle gradations of gray tones on the edges of the hand, and these add to the complexity of the image. As is typical of prints made by Evans, there are indented marks in the photogram's four corners: these were made by the clips Evans used to hang his images to dry after processing. The roughness of the right edge of the print indicates that Evans tore the photographic paper down from a larger sheet. Given its age, the photogram is in a remarkable state of preservation. In angled light, some uneven age-appropriate silvering can be seen in the dark areas. There is some very minor wear on the print's corners. The small Coville Collection label on the reverse is a green paper adhesive label. The two boxes of the Lunn stamp on the reverse are unmarked, indicating the difficulties of classifying this unique and surprising image within Evans's oeuvre.
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The 1920s and early 1930s was a period of formal exploration for Walker Evans as he became acquainted with the art of photography and its expressive potential.  While Evans would ultimately adapt an orthodox approach to photographic technique, his early work shows notable examples of technical experimentation.  The closest corollary to the remarkable photogram offered here may be the series of self-portraits Evans executed in 1927 in Juan-les-Pins, France, in which he appears solely as a shadow cast upon a white wall (cf. Walker Evans, Metropolitan Museum of Art, pl. 1).  In each of these self-portraits, he placed himself between the sun and the wall, creating a likeness by blocking the light.  In concept, if not execution, these shadow pictures nearly function as photograms.

Upon his return to America from his Paris sojourn in 1927, Evans continued to apply various experimental approaches to his work.  His diminutive cityscapes, Brooklyn Bridge pictures, and views of railroad tracks exploited the portability of his new small camera and employed unconventional vantage points and innovative framing.  His 1930 views of theatre lights on Broadway, in which an almost frenetic display of bright lettering leaps out from a black background, make creative use of reflection, or may be double exposures (Keller 68 and 69).  In 1930, he also made a double exposure of his friend and fellow photographer Berenice Abbott (Keller 124), in which hands figure prominently.  This photogram takes its place within that formative period of Evans’s career, when he developed his facility with the medium and determined what creative direction he would follow.