Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by Walker Evans and James Agee is a collaborative work created during the Great Depression in the summer of 1936. Documenting the lives of three white sharecropper families in Hale County, Alabama, the project is both a detailed visual record and an introspective literary exploration. Evans, already a significant figure in American photography by the 1930s, was commissioned to contribute his photographs for what began as a journalistic assignment for Fortune magazine. Agee’s accompanying prose, poetic and philosophical, examines the lives of the families, creating a multifaceted documentary work.
Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, the project emerged from a context of widespread economic hardship and social transformation. The New Deal programs, including the FSA, sought to address the crisis, and social documentary photography gained prominence as a medium to illustrate the struggles of ordinary Americans. Evans’s photographs align with this tradition, providing a straightforward view of the sharecroppers’ lives while avoiding sentimentalism. Agee’s text, in contrast, blends journalistic observation with literary experimentation, reflecting his internal conflict about the ethics of representing others’ suffering.
Thematically, the project addresses the severe impacts of poverty, the resilience and dignity of its subjects, and the inherent challenges of representation. Evans’s photography focuses on static, frontal compositions, often featuring centrally framed subjects surrounded by their modest environments. Evans employed a large-format camera, which allowed for meticulous compositions with exceptional clarity and detail. His black-and-white images emphasize the austere and somber tone, using natural lighting to highlight textures—from weathered faces to deteriorating clapboard walls—that reinforce the stark realities of the subjects' lives.
Published in 1941, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men sold poorly and drew mixed reviews, with Agee’s experimental prose dividing opinion. The 1960 reissue expanded the photographic portfolio, reached a broad academic readership, and anchored the project in debates on documentary ethics and form. Subsequent exhibitions—including Walker Evans: An Alabama Record (J. Paul Getty Museum, 1992) and Walker Evans and James Agee: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (Harry Ransom Center, 2004)—prompted closer study and critical reception.
