Roadside Sign, Louisiana

Walker Evans visited Louisiana and the Gulf Coast in 1935 and 1935 as a photographer for the U.S. government’s Farm Security Adminstration. In addition to photographing social conditions in the South, Evans pursued his personal interest in the architecture and folkways of the region. This dry cleaning sign in Baton Rouge, with its distinctive juxtaposition of a suit on a stand with two trees, caught his eye and became part of the artist’s extensive photographic catalog of American signage.

After giving a lecture at Yale University in 1964, Evans began teaching there the following year as a professor of graphic design. He found a dynamic group of colleagues including Herbert Matter and Norman Seaton Ives. Ives worked with Evans to create a portfolio of his photographs issued in 1971, of which this photograph was a part (see object file for detailed publishing information and list of photographs included, all shot in the 1930s.