Walker Evans: New Orleans Downtown Street, Louisiana, 1935
Photo Credit: Heritage Auctions

This street view captures Canal Street from near its beginning at Front Street on the lower side, looking away from the Mississippi River. The block is adorned with a plethora of business signs, with the one for Sun Coffee Shop being the most prominent, situated on the corner to the right. Just past this, a barber’s pole stands out. Other notable signage includes “Oriental Laundry — Not in the Trust” and restaurants advertising Regal Beer and Luzianne Coffee. In the high-resolution version of this photograph, one can discern chalkboard menus on the street; the prices are listed in cents, painting a vivid picture of a bygone world that one can only strive to imagine living in.

The strength of Evans’s photography, particularly his works from this era, lies in his ability to capture the stark yet beautiful reality of New Orleans and Louisiana during the Great Depression. As a student of documentary-style photography, Evans found the city brimming with scenes begging to be photographed—buildings, people, and streetside vignettes. These images are more than mere historical records of the time; they demonstrate that even during such bleak periods as the Great Depression, moments of everyday life can be transformed into significant works of art.

Walker Evans, with his discerning eye for the ordinary, had an extraordinary ability to elevate the mundane to the magnificent. His photographs of New Orleans in the 1930s are no exception, transforming the everyday streets into a canvas that reflects the spirit and struggle of the era. Through his lens, Evans did not simply document reality; he composed visual stories that speaks to the resilience and beauty found in the details of daily life, even amidst the harshest of times. His work invites us to look closer, to see the art in life, and to appreciate the historical narrative etched into the very fabric of the city’s streets.

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