Thomas Roma/Walker Evans : Critique of these artists

“Court Portraits” was Roma’s first series presented in the show. Taken at the Brooklyn Criminal Courthouse Brooklyn courthouse, Roma casts a few courthouse stragglers as his subjects. All seem to be in a quiet submission to the photographer, like in acts of repentance or admittance.

“Higher Ground” looks to be Roma’s most prolific effort. A compilation of subway photographs in a range of emotion and scale. Subway straphangers and riders populate his photographs either sleeping or caught in their thoughts. Like many of the other pictures in his series a common tie can be seen in his subway interior shots. The passengers lean toward an overexposed light, as if the light held spiritual power. After looking at his book, I wasn’t quite convinced on the i

The Walker Evans exhibition is a brief synopsis of the phases in his career, or at least as far as the Marian and Benjamin A. Hill Collection allowed. The exhibit was treated more like a retrospective rather than a focus on one of Evans’s concerns. All of the photographs of Walker Evans are small in size, from his candids to his landscapes. As a device the small scale detracted from the impact of the photos. But the small scale really gets every single detail in crisp, sharp focus thereby giving the picture a weight that larger pictures would not be able to catch.

The pictures taken outside the train transport you the elevated tracks overlooking the expanse of the Brooklyn landscape. The foreground while containing some metaphors like the signal lights, let the background (Brooklyn) do most of the talking.

Some topics in this essay:
Courthouse Brooklyn, Walker Evans, Whereas Evans, York Victorian, Besides Roma, Roma Evans, Hill Collection, Thomas Roma, Ellen Handy, Dorothea Lange, walker evans, subway travel, thomas roma, marian benjamin hill, street scenes, subway photos, subway shots, benjamin hill, “higher ground”, aspects subway, aspects subway travel, benjamin hill collection, subway portraits,