Robert Frank's stove, Nova Scotia. From the portfolio: fifteen photographs by Walker Evans

item details

NameRobert Frank's stove, Nova Scotia. From the portfolio: fifteen photographs by Walker Evans

ProductionWalker Evans; photographer; 1971; United States
Estate of Walker Evans; printer; 1977; United States

Classificationgelatin silver prints, black-and-white prints, black-and-white photographs, works of art

Materialssilver, photographic gelatin, photographic paper

Materials Summaryblack and white photograph, gelatin silver print

Techniquesblack-and-white photography

DimensionsImage: 152mm (height), 156mm (length)

Registration NumberO.002797

Overview

A simple life

Two stoves: one symbolising a friendship, the other a way of life.

Walker Evans’ photograph shows the gleaming stove of his friend, fellow photographer Robert Frank. It makes a good analogy for the two men’s relationship – one of ideas cooked up and shared.

Frank and Evans were both groundbreaking American photographers. Evans’ 1938 book, American Photographs, starkly portrayed United States society during the Depression. Frank built on Evans’ documentary style with his own influential work, The Americans, 1959.

In comparison, Richard Wotton’s photograph of Fred and Deborah Frederikse’s stove, in their self-built dome house near Whanganui, is a homage to a lifestyle. The rustic ‘Orion’ is celebrated as the centre of a self-sufficient existence that requires only simple comforts.