WALKER EVANS in NEW YORK: PHOTOGRAPHY and URBAN CULTURE, 1927–1934 Antonello Frongia, Ph.D
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WALKER EVANS IN NEW YORK: PHOTOGRAPHY AND URBAN CULTURE, 1927–1934 A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Antonello Frongia August 2015 © 2015 Antonello Frongia ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WALKER EVANS IN NEW YORK: PHOTOGRAPHY AND URBAN CULTURE, 1927–1934 Antonello Frongia, Ph.D. Cornell University, 2015 This dissertation offers the first systematic study of the photographs taken by Walker Evans in New York City and its vicinity between 1927 and 1934, a formative period that preceded the full consecration of his work in the second half of the 1930s. About 200 urban photographs in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum and a significant body of negatives in the Metropolitan Museum’s Walker Evans Archive indicate that Evans’s early work was mostly devoted to the theme of the modern me- tropolis. Cross-referencing Evans’s images with contemporary photographs, aerial views, architectural plans, insurance maps, drawings, and verbal descriptions, this study aims to identify the exact subjects, the places, and whenever possible the dates of this previ- ously uncharted body of urban photographs. The resulting catalog of over 300 images suggests the contours of an unfinished project on New York City that Evans developed in the years immediately preceding and following the Wall Street crash of 1929. On a different level, this dissertation addresses the question of Evans’s visual educa- tion in the context of the “transatlantic modernism” of the 1920s and ’30s. In particular, it shows that Evans, despite his early literary ambitions, was fully conversant with the work of visual artists, architects, and critics of the Machine Age. Long ignored and of- ten discredited as mere experiments in the fashionable style of the New Vision, his early photographs incorporated and developed the critique of American modernism offered by such books as Le Corbusier’s Vers une architecture (1923) and Erich Mendelsohn’s Amerika. Bilderbuch eines Architekten (1926). At the same time, his New York project shared the quest for an American art widely debated in avant-garde magazines and was consonant with the work of many painters later known as Precisionist. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Antonello Frongia graduated in City and Regional Planning from the Istituto Uni ver- sitario di Architettura di Venezia in 1998 with a thesis on Jacob A. Riis. Since 2002 has been teaching and researching the history of photography at various Italian universities. Since 2010 he is an assistant professor in the history of modern art at the Università Roma Tre, Italy. He is a steering committee member of the Italian Society for the Study of Photography (SISF). iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation is in memory of Christian F. Otto (1940–2013). Research and writ- ing of the first chapters began under his tutelage many years ago. A dedicated scholar, Professor Otto guided most of my studies in Cornell’s History of Architecture and Urban Development (HAUD) program, teaching me the importance of intellectual experience and the value of thinking across national boundaries, cultural divides, and academic fences. A missed friend, Chris offered immeasurable support and the warmth of his esteem. I was blessed that he kept his good, long, and smiling eye upon me. I owe a special debt of gratitude to the members of my Special Committee – Bonnie G. MacDougall, Stuart M. Blumin, and Leonard J. Mirin – who assisted me during the process of completing the manuscript, patiently enduring my delays and my deviations from the work plan. Without their trusting confidence and their gentle reminders, this dissertation would have remained forever in the Evansian condition of the unfinished project. In particular, I wish to thank Professor MacDougall for accepting to act as my Committee Chair, for her generous consideration of my work, and for her inestimable presence when this frail vessel needed to be steered across the ocean and into the Dome. I am grateful to Professor Blumin for his perceptive comments on Walker Evans and for his stinging remark, fifteen years ago, about the marginal influence played by art- ists’ images on urban culture, which proved a productive stimulus during my protract- ed wrestling with Evans’s photographs. Finally, I am extremely thankful to Professor Mirin for his photographic eye, his Socratic curiosity about the visual history of his hometown, New York City, and for kindly overestimating my competence in this area. At Cornell, I wish to thank Jonathan Ochshorn, my Director of Graduate Studies, for his help in clarifying all sorts of administrative questions and for his willingness to find practicable solutions. Cindy Bowman, Graduate Programs and Special Projects Coordinator, was a marvel of efficiency and courtesy, two qualities rarely seen in one person. Research was greatly aided by the welcoming environment of Cornell’s libraries. iv In particular, I wish to thank the staff of our Fine Arts Library for their friendly sup- port and for silently accommodating my “please do not reshelve” slips at the end of the day. Peter B. Hirtle, a most humane authority in the field, generously took the time to write me long emails regarding the labyrinthine world of reproduction rights. Finally, I wish to thank the many individuals who unbeknownst to me made my years at Cornell, both in person and in absentia, a life-changing experience. I am also grateful to Cornell University for the fellowships and grants that funded the research for this project, including the Sage Fellowship, the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies Travel Grant, and The A. Henry Detweiler Fund. During the long process of researching this dissertation, information and practical help was kindly provided by the following individuals: Jeff Rosenheim, Mia Fineman, Meredith Friedman (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York); Ruth A. Carr, Vincenzo Rutigliano (The New York Public Library); Lisa Henry (The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles); Sandra Phillips, Erin O’Toole (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art); Peter Barberie, Julia Dolan (Philadelphia Museum of Art); Cara Dellatte (Staten Island Museum); John R. Gossage (Washington, D.C.); Brian Merlis (Brooklyn); Ettore Bellini, Giancarlo Bisazza, Umberto Ferro, Carla Pezzin (Università Iuav di Venezia). This work would have not been possibile without the increasing number of digital collections that public and private institutions have made available online during the past decade. I wish to extend my acknowledgments to all the nameless people – in fact, modern-day photographers – whose daily work is to turn rare, delicate documents of the past into accessible images that can travel across time and space. The pages that follow are the culmination of a long adventure. The route was opened over two decades ago by Emanuela Palazzi, whose clairvoyance first made me think that I could write about American photography and who urged me to travel to New York. The late Giovanni Ferraro, Eugenio N. Frongia, and the late Robert Laurenty provided moral and material support in Venice and during the earliest stages of my American education. In Ithaca, the warm companionship of Tanja Damljanovic, v Pierpaolo and Lena Rose Polzonetti, and Paola Iovene made my student life less unbear- able. Subsequently, Paola continued to offer friendly backing and professional advice, eventually persuading me that the time to finish had come. Michela Morgante shared the beginnings of my teaching life in Italy and the uncertainties of displacement. To my family, I owe the largest debt of gratitude for providing the invaluable freedom to pursue my own projects and research. My thinking about photographic practices, objects, and histories has been deeply shaped over the years by conversations with Guido Guidi and the late Lewis Baltz. My students in Trieste, Venice, and Rome also deserve my gratitude for their insightful comments and for coping with my endless obsession with Evans’s photographs. Many friends influenced my way of looking at photographs and offered their help during various stages of research: François and Marie Avril, Marina Ballo Charmet, Joana Barreto, Barbara Cinelli, Paola D’Agostino, Marco De Michelis, Mary K. Fessenden, Alessandro Laita, Silvia Loddo, Brendan D. Moran, Laura Moro, Stefano Munarin, Mark J. Newman, Lisa Ochoa-Frongia, Silvia Paoli, Cristiana Pasqualetti, Paola Pellegrini, Alessandra Perriccioli and Lello Saggese, Andrea Pertoldeo, Gustavo Pietropolli Charmet, Giuliana Racco, Chiaralice Rizzi, and Lia Turtas. I especially thank Roberta M. Moudry, who first saw me when I was a student and has been my covert mentor ever since. An unfailing friend and a supportive scholar, Roberta has been the dea ex machina of this dissertation, generously contributing her precious time, energy, knowledge, and independent thinking. Finally, I owe more than I can say to Teresa, the patient witness of my struggle with Walker Evans. During this time, her daily work on the mysteries of illuminated manuscripts has taught me a great deal about the methods and the pleasures of histori- cal inquiry. Without her loving complicity, understanding, and encouragement, this project would have never seen the light. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLUME I Biographical sketch iii Acknowledgments iv Abbreviations ix Introduction 1 Chapter one An unfinished project on New York City 1.1 Manhattan skyline 6 1.2 An unfinished project 9 1.3 Historiographical issues 18 1.4 In the archive