Snatches of conversation travel across their intended recipients, to a rhythm suggested by the reflections of bouncing lights.
For his "subway portraits," which Evans began to make immediately after the appearance of American Photographs yet first published only fifteen years later, the photographer remained as anonymous as his subjects. Furtively riding New York City subway cars, Evans hid all but the lens of his camera and snapped his pictures without raising the camera to his eyes. By shooting "blind," he sacrificed the ability to frame his compositions exactly (although he did crop many negatives in printing) but gained thoroughly candid views in return. Portraiture merges here with voyeurism and surveillance. Interestingly, the disjuncture between artist and subject is matched by the sitters' own alienation from one another. Even family members traveling together connect only tangentially, as we see in this photograph. Snatches of conversation travel across their intended recipients, to a rhythm suggested by the reflections of bouncing lights. The lack of eye contact, meanwhile, is eloquently summed up in a wall of newsprint at right.