Rochester Optical Co. Universal Variation 1 'Walker Evans' *

Early first variation of the Universal model, owned and probably used by the famous U.S. photographer Walker Evans early in his carrier, provenance: a personal and professional assistant of Mr. Evans who inherited the camera. Folding wooden camera with reversing back for 13x18cm (5x7") film plates, the focus is made from the front part only, with a "triple-convertible" type unmarked lens mounted in Wollensak Autex pneumatic shutter, original black bellows, mahogany chassis with brass fittings, in good, original condition, with 3x original film plate holders, 12x Eastman 5x7" later film sheath with maker's box, original canvas hard case.

Walker Evans (1903-1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist. He is widely acknowledged as one of the most important photographers of the twentieth century and worked primarily in the US. His enormous artistic influence has been recognized not only there, but also internationally. He is best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression on the rural population in the Mid 1930s. The portraits of the three families Fields, Borroughs and Tingle became icons of photography history. After 1945, Evans photographed, among others, American urban landscapes and industrial buildings for magazines like Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Architectural Forum, Life and Fortune. Because of his documentary style, he is considered the forerunner of the German photographer couple Bernd and Hilla Becher. In 1938 the MoMa organized the first exhibition for a single photographer for Walker Evans: American Photographs. Since then, many of his works are in permanent collections of museums or have been the subject of retrospectives at institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the George Eastman Museum, the Centre Pompidou, or, most notably at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and at the J. Paul Getty Museum in California, USA.