Houses and Cemetery, Birmingham, Alabama

Walker Evans

1903–1975

Houses and Cemetery, Birmingham, Alabama, 1936

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: gelatin silver print

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 19.2 x 24.5 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 7 9/16 x 9 5/8 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 20 x 16 in

Credit line: Museum purchase: Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund

Accession number: 1985.0106

Not on display

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Label texts

Exhibition Label: "Time/Frame," Jun-2008, Robert Fucci, Shuyun Ho, Lauren Kernes, Lara Kuykendall, Ellen C. Raimond, and Stephanie Teasley In Houses and Cemetery, Birmingham, Alabama, photographer Walker Evans explores what for him is a familiar subject: the uneasy relationship between life and death. A picket fence is the only barrier separating the land of the living from that of the dead; however, Evans seems to imply that death may hold more “life.” In comparison to the upright headstones, like standing figures occupying a park populated by trees and grass, the houses in the background appear bleak, empty, and devoid of life.