Walker Evans - Florida (Photography Art eBook)
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Commissionedin 94 by
w r i t e r K a r l B i c k e l Walker Evans
traveled to F l o r i d a to take the photographs that were published a year
later i n Bickel s The Mangrove Coast.
These photographs constitute a
l i t t l e - k n o w n c hapte r i n Evans s l o n g
career. Pelicans, t r a i l e r homes,
dancing circus elephants f r o m the
B i n g l i n g Bros, w i n t e r quarters i n
Sarasota —the image ry Evans f o u n d
i n F l o r i d a was far removed f r o m the
Depression-era A m e r i c a w i t h w h i c h
this master photographer is so often
associated.
Walker Evans . loridabrings
together f i f t y - f o u r of Evans s p hot o
graphs of F l o r i d a accompanied by
an essay by novelist Bobert Pl unket,
who lives in Sarasota. Plunket s wry
account of the hum an and geographic
landscape of F l o r i d a provides a
superb c ount erp oint to Evans s pho
togra phs, rev eal ing a side o f Evans s
career that may come as something
o f a surprise to many of his a dmir ers .
F R O N T C O V E R Trailer in
Camp Sarasota: see p ge 56
R A C K C O V E R Three• Palms
see p ge 53
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W
loridL K E R E V N S
With an essay by
R o b e r t Plunket
Th e J . P a u l G e t t y M u s e u m # L o s A n g e l e s
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viii
Introduction:
Evans in Florida 1941
L ongtime newspaperman Karl
Bickel retired with his wife to Sarasota,
Florida, in 1985. Bickel had been presi-dent of what was then called United
Press Associations ( n o w U P I ) f ro m
1938 to 1985, had written the b ookJVeK;
Empires: Th e Newspaper and the Radio
(1980), and, in 1983, had confidentially
advised Charles Lindbergh on how to
deal with the media during the ordeal of
his son's kidnapping. In the quiet resort
town of Sarasota (population 8,000),
Bickel quickly became a community
leader working toward economic as well
as cultural improvements. He also took
up the hobby of investigating the history
of the west coast of the state. The result
of h is research w as The Mangrove Coast:
The Story of the West Coast of Florida. It is
a book that ranges from the geology of
the region to the legends of its explorers
to the author's personal reminiscences
about favorite fishing trips.
Th e Mangrove Coast concerns a
stretch of the state along the Gulf of
Mexico described by Bickel as extending
"f rom Ancolote Anchorage to Sanibel
K ey and then tapering off from Sanibelsouthward to the distant mouth of the
Shark." Bickel declares that the attrac-
tion of the Mangrove Coast is actually
to be found, not in its past, but "in its
intangibles: the gleam of white sand,
the softness of southwest winds, pink
and turquoise sunsets, and the abiding
simplicity of its people."
It does seem strange that Walker
Evans (1908—1975), a photographer who
consistently maintained that he found
nature uninteresting, was selected to
provide illustrations for a book about
the historical myths and natural beauty
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of the nation's vacationland, its south-
ernmost state. But whatever the reasons
fo r the o ffe r , Evans was happy to accept
the job of illustrating Bickel's book,
which involved a six-week trip to Florida
in 1941 and paid him a much-needed fee.
Th e Mangrove Coast appeared in
1943 in a first edition that consisted of
Bickel's text (with an epilogue written
that January reflecting the recent e ffec ts
of wartime on Florida's west coast), fol-l owe d by a portfolio of thirty-two pho-
tographs by Evans, introduced with his
captions. This group of pictures is pos-
sibly the least known of Evans's pre-1945
works and survives in very few 19408
prints, most of them now located at the
Getty Museum. Their importance has
been overshadowed by Evans's New York
subway series of the same period, but
they exhibit the photographer's eye in
an equally exceptional way and, with
more exposure, should be accepted as a
significant phase in the development of
Evans's mature documentary style, com-
parable to his igSS work in Cuba and his
Depression-era pictures "from the field"
fo r the Resettlement Administration.
The selection of Evans's Florida
photographs presented here is accom-
panied by an essay by novelist Robert
Plunket, who lives in Sarasota. Mr.
Plunket knows Florida intimately,
and his wry assessment of the B icke l—
Evans collaboration places these
little-known photographs within thecolorful context o f the Mangrove Coast .
Judith Keller
Associate Curator
Department of Photographs
A Technical Note
Walker Evans: Florida
contains fifty-four gelatin
silver photographs, a num-
ber of which were first pub-
lished in Karl Bickel s Th e
M a n g r o v e Coast (1942).
All of the images were
selected from the Getty-
Museum s collection, the
largest holding of prints
made by Walker Evans him-
self. A few of the photo-
graphs have been slightly
cropped, and a very fe w
have been significantly
cropped. All of the pho-
tographs are reproduced in
their complete form, with
their dimensions and acces-
sion numbers, beginning on
page 64. Further information
about the prints, as well as
the entire Get ty collection of
Evans s work, can be found
in my Walker Evans: The
G e t t y M useum Collect ion
(1995).
J . K .
ix
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It is not to be denied
that full hal f o f th etourists and travellers
that come to Florida
return intensel y
disappointed andeven disgusted.
Why?
— Harriet Beecher Stowe
Palmetto Leaves 1878
xi
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Walker Evans the Mangrove Coast and Me
by Robert Plunket
Just about everyone in Sarasota does.
Fo r the past fifteen years I have been
one of the town's leading gossip col-
umnists. I've covered everything f r o m
charity balls to the Mayor's Prayer
Breakfast , from the high-school prom
to the opening night of the French Film
Festival, where Jeanne Moreau and
Audrey Hepburn, dressed to the nines,
vied f o r "best entrance." (Audrey won.)
I've roasted politicians, I've e m c e e d
charity auctions, I've modeled sports-
w e a r to b e n e f i t th e Humane Society.
I've even interviewed Warren Burger
and Pia Zadora, although not at the
same time.
1
C a l l m e M r C h a t t e r b o x
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P A G E x i i
Tw o Giraffes, Circus Winter
Quarters, Sarasota
P A G E 3
Concrete Block Building with
Shell Decoration
And in doing so I 've learne d a lot
about Florida. It really is different down
h e r e — t h e w ay it looks, th e weather , th esocial pat terns , t he b rand-newness of
th e place . Everybody comes f rom s o m e -
where else, which me ans he has secrets
f rom his past back in Dayton, and in a
n u m b e r of cases those secrets involve
fo rmer wives who disappeared under
myster ious c ircumstances . An amaz ing
n u m b e r of people blow into tow n, make
a splashy nam e for them selves, a nd then
are arres ted. The buying and selling
of real estate is the dom inant industry .
Indeed, it could be said that the rea l-
estate ad is the pr incipal form of l i te ra-
ture here .
Even the ar t is dif fer ent . True ,
there is much conventional a r t—pa in t -
ings , perform ances , e tc . B ut the really
interesting artistic endeavors are usual-
ly disguised as something e lse — a
theme park , a mystery novel, a coconut ,
even a s imple vacat ion photograph.
Walker Evans took m any photographs
here in 1941, but they are not, definitely
not, vacation photograph s. They ar e
som ething else en tirely.
2
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O P P O S I T E
Mystery Ship Roadside Ba r
5IEvan
i first becam e in teres ted in Walker
s because I am what you might call
a b iography freak. They are m y favorite
form of reading. I haunt th e "New Books"
section at Selby Library at least once
a wee k, looking for the latest . I ' l l read
anything, but I find myself mos t drawn
to the lives of those torture d twentieth-
century Am erican wri ters , t he ones
who smoke and drank too much and
then died young, thus becoming instant
legends . O ne thing I 've not ice d is
that in an as tonishing nu mb er of these
books , th e name W alker Evans keeps
popping u p .
Two o f Evans 's closest friends have
particularly interested me. The f irs t was
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O P P O S I T E
Souvenir Shop Display
R I G H T
Racetrack Spectators
Hart Crane, one of the great poets of
the twe nties. Talk abo ut intense : he
worked on one p o e m fo r seven years—
The Bridge— fo r which Evans took th e
f ron t ispiece photograph. Crane was a
binge dr inker and an indefat igable
sailor-chaser, that is, unt i l he sur-
prised everyone by running off with
Malcolm Cowley's wife. They went to
Mex ico and moved in wi th K ather ine
Anne Por t e r . Bu t on t he way back ,Crane had second thoughts an d jum ped
ship, l i teral ly, leap ing o ff th e stern o f
the SS Orizaba and drowning just nor th
of Havana.
Jam es Agee was even s t ranger .
His career was the triumph of the will.
7
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N o b o d y wanted to be a great writer
more that he. He published one very
good novel, A Death in the Family, more
or less to prove that he could, but he
is best remembered for his collabo-
ration with Evans, Let U s Now Praise
Famous Men, and his screenplay for
Th e African Queen. Like Crane he died
young, a heart attack in a taxicab.
He was literally worn out by art. He was
one of the original "problem smokers";
he had a bad heart but couldn't stop
his constant intake of nicotine. Women
found him very sexy in a Nicolas Cage
sort of way, and as he is a biographer's
dream, there are quite a few books
about him.
Evans is the mystery of the trio.
O ne reason may be that he lacked the
energy of his friends. He was cool,
passive, shy, more a voyeur than a partici-
pant. Evans didn't wear his heart on his
sleeve like Crane and Agee. He loved
people-watching, particularly when he
could do it in a reclining position. Today
there are many artists like h i m — A n d y
Warho l and R. Crumb leap to m i n d — b u t
Walker Evans was, back in the '3os and
'408, ahead of his time, personality-wise.
An example: he embraced the com-
mercial. Indeed, his career was one
of moving from job to job. Most of his
m a j o r work resulted from becoming
attached to a project initiated by some-
8
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one else. The best known was, of course,
Le t U s Now Praise Famous Men. B ut therewere others as well; the book you're
holding in your hands is the result of
one of Evans's more exotic assignments,
and just about the only one that could
be described as fun.
It all began when Evans was con-
tacted on behalf of a man named Ka r l
Bicke l , who needed some photographs
fo r a book he was writing. Bickel had
recently retired to Sarasota af te r a long
and distinguished career in journalism
that started with his coverage of the San
Francisco earthquake. He moved f r om
strength to strength until he ended up
as head o f U P I .
He joined various civic boards and
boosted the city. He led the drive to
build a big pavilion out at Lido Bea ch ,
and his wife, M a di r a , is still remem-
bered for her ironfisted rule of the localwomen's club. But they both had an
intellectual side as wel l , and the history
of Florida became their specialty.
Indeed, M a di r a rose to such promi-
nence in the state historical society
that an ancient Indian midden, or pile
of shells, is named in her honor up in
Terra Ceia.
K a r l decided to do her one better,
though. He would write a book detail-
ing the long and co lo r fu l history of
the Gulf Coas t of Florida, to be titled
Th e M angrove Coast, af te r th e ubiqui-
tous plant that grows half-in and half-
out of the water and covers much of
9
now in his new home
kar l se t ou t to bec om e
sarasatas ideal citizen
the active retiree.
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L E F T
Two Me n Fishing
O P P O S I T E
Shuffleboard Players
th e shore l ine . And he wou ld get a f i rs t -
ra t e pho tograph e r to supply the p i c -
tures . W alker Evans, who was, after all,
th e f i r s t pho tographe r t o be h o n o r e d
with a n ex hibit at the M u s e u m o f M o d -
ern Art , sounded pe rfect .
With his Guggenhe im m oney run-
ning out (he 'd received a fe l lowship
in 1940) and the re lease of Let Us Now
Praise Famous Men so d i sappo in t in g—the
b o o k sold a m e r e six hundred copies —
Evans m ust have been very happy wi th
the prospect of spending s ix weeks in
Florida, al l expens es p aid, just as cold
was settling in up N o r t h . F u r th e r m o r e
it wou ld be a f ree honeymoon: Evans
had just m arr ied Ja ne Smith N i n a s , a
pain ter. And so, in late Oc tob er of 1941,
th e newlyweds set out for the west coast
of Florida.
10
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12I
th e phrase "west coast o f Flor ida"
is drawing a b lank in you r mind, don ' t
worry: even pe ople on the eas t coas t of
Flor ida don ' t know mu ch abou t it . You
grow up on one coas t and spend you r
entire life th ere, w ithout going to the
other . One reason is the j ou rn ey itself ,
an endless dr ive through swam p o r
sugarcane o r ca t t le ranches . The only
human se t t l emen ts a re migran t -worke r
and pr ison camps. T he m essage is c lear :b ehave , o r you ' ll end up in the middle
of the state.
N o one denies that th e east coast
is m ore g lamorous . It always ha s b e e n .
T h e r e w as nothing qui te as exc i t ing
as M i a m i B e a c h in the 19508, and n ow,
in its new guise, the B e a c h is b a c k
o n top , with all those hip mo dels and
no p lace to pa rk . A nd Pa lm Beach
has a lways bee n o ne o f the most g lam-
orous places in the wor ld , a t o p - t e n
con ten der . Even B oc a R a ton , even
Ft. Lau derdale . . . .B ut Tampa?
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L E F T
Cypress Swamp
13
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Like any self-respecting
place w ith a similar parb-
lem , the w est coast concedes
glamour but insists that
it is m ore :rea l In this case, "real" mea ns
real old and real quiet, a nd with a n
indigenous population that is real South-
ern in thought and action and lifestyle
(i.e., lots o f pickup t rucks with Co nfede r-ate flags). The ec ono m y centers around the
re t i rement industry , and anyone under
fifty is perceived a s startlingly young.
Though there are pockets of affluence
(Naples an d, near Sarasota , Longboat
Key), the general atmosphere is m iddle-
class M idwestern, with palm trees.
Keep i n mind that th e w est coast
of Florida is not the same thing as the
Gulf Coast. T he Gulf Co ast stretches
f rom Pensaco la , at the Alabama bor -
der, all the w ay south to the end of
th e mainland, jus t nor th o f K ey W est.
The west coast is the lower par t o f the
Gulf Coast , th e par t that faces west ;up in the Panhandle, the land faces
south. These two par ts of the Gulf
Coast, like the east an d west coasts,
have nothing to do with each other
and are , i n fact, separated by anothe r
natural barr ier . On the m ap i t looks
l ike an enormous mangrove swamp.Whatever it is , i t is impen etrable , and
no one ever goes there .
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16
P A G E 1 4
Auto G raveyard at Tampa
P A G E 1 5
Upstate Roadside Landscape
R I G H T
Fishermen in Sponge Boat,
Tarpon Springs
O P P O S I T E
Sponge-Diver s Boat,
Tarpon Springs
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The west coast, where Evans too k
al l his photographs, begins north of
Tampa with a smattering of little towns,
the most interesting of which is TarponSprings, where fifth-generatio n Greeks
dive for sponges. N e x t com es Tampa
itself. On the surface it seems to be a
large co mm erc ial cen te r o f no par t i cu -
lar in teres t , but the m o r e yo u study i t,
the mo re i t becom es very interes t ing
indeed. Criminals on the lam are always
being caught in m otels there, and a seri-
ous devil-worship problem exis ts amo ng
the young; yet anoth er claim to fame is
that it has the highest incidence of light-
ning strikes in th e country . S t. Peters-
burg, across th e bay, funct ions as a glum
Brooklyn to Tampa's M anhattan. I t was
here that a broke n, barely m iddle-agedJack K erouac drank himself to death in
his mo ther 's ho use.
Heading south, we next encou nter
Bradenton, an old Southern town fam ous
as the h o m e o f Tropicana Orange Ju ice .
1 8
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L E F T
Crowd Waiting at Street
Corner, Tampa
19
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2
Then comes Sarasota, about which more
later, and then Venice, where retire-
m e n t has b e co m e no t jus t a lifestyle but
th e l ifestyle. (I on ce c overe d a party
there attended by, among others, twenty-
seven people over the age of one hun -
dred.) Ft . Myers is next ; it is very large,
over two hun dred thousand inhabitants ,
but oddly out of the mainstream . I 've
only had occasion to go there once, and
al l I can remem ber is banyan t rees and
lots of traffic. N e x t com es N aples , which
is very opulent. Old money retires here ,but it is smal l ish—popula t ion twenty-
one t h o u s a n d — a n d , as they say, "dead
in the sum mer." South of N aples is a
place called Mar co Island, crowded with
vacation condos whose charm eludes
m e, a nd then... nothing.
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O P P O S I T E
M en in the Street a t Tampa
L E F T
Blind Couple
in Tampa City Square Hall
21
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O P P O S I T E
Coastal Landscape
with Palms
If the west coast of florida
seems a little off the beaten
track now , just im ag ine
how isplated it must have
seemed back in 1941.That was before a i r -condi t i on ing a nd
mosqu i to con t ro l . Roads were few and
pr imi tive ; m uch o f the t r an spo r ta t ion
was by boat . When Char les and Anne
Lindbergh came for a vis i t , they packe d
as if for a safari.B ut Sarasota was a happy ex cept ion
to all this. I t was wor ld famous back in
those days, as the ho m e of the Ringling
Br os , and B a r n u m & B ai ley Circus , a
beaut i ful , pristine litt le town of eight
t h o u s a n d — t h e undisputed star of the
west coast. I t had thirty-five miles of
white-sand beaches and a cosmopo li tan
popu la t ion . T he bars must have been
grea t ; people still talk abou t the old
Plaza, not to mention the M 'To to R oom
( n amed after a famo us gor i lla) at the ElV ernona Ho tel , where there were c ircus
acts and dancing every night. Visiting
celebrities cam e through regularly. T he
Que en of Iran showe d up, plus Will
Rogers , and even Albert Einstein, w ho
was fitted with a truss at B adger 's Drug
?
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4
Store on M ain Street. The house where
he stayed is still standing on South Polk
Drive out on Lido Key, mak ing Sarasota
one o f the few places where we can trulysa y we had "Einstein on the B each."
Karl B ickel gave Evans carte b lanche
as to what to take pictu res of , and it's
not surprising that the urbane photogra-
pher , w ho bought h is clothes at Brooks
Brothers , decided to concentra te h is
efforts on Sarasota. The road trips were
few and not very produc tive. (I won der
if M adira and her middens had any-
thing to do with this.) A journey to
Tallahassee* yielded a single port ra i t
of an antebellum mansion and a s ide-
walk scene. Tam pa and St. Pete regis-
tered as group portraits of grim, elderly
w o m e n . Only Tarpo n Springs acqu itted
itself we ll: Evans loved the diving suit
(p . 39) and the amateurish mura ls (pp.
3o —3i ) , versions of which still decora te
the Tarpo n Springs of today.
*Ralph Waldo E m e r s o n , no less ,
descr ibed T allahassee as "a
gro tesque plac e," set t led b y
"office h olders , speculators ,
an d despe rados ." Even in
1826, few writers were wil l ing
to give th e west coas t a break .
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O P P O S I T E
Antebellum Plantation
House at Tallahassee
L E F T
Negroes at Tallahassee
35
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*6
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8
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P A G E 26
The Green Benches at
St. Petersburg
PA G E 27
Winter Resorters
P A G E 28
Winter Resorters
R I G H T
Sponge Diver s Suit,
Tarpon Springs
For h is Sarasota photograph s ,
Evans managed to capture the things that
were unique to the tow n. First , of cours e,
came the circus. Time af ter t ime h e j o u r -
neye d out to the east of tow n to visit
th e Ringling circus winter quarters a ndpho tograph t h e an imals , th e archi tec-
ture, the ra i l road cars , and m ost of
all, t he elabora te, hand-carved ci rcus
wagons that were used i n count less
parades down the M ain Streets of
count less Am erican towns .
9
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P A G E S 3 0 — 3 1
Descriptive Painting b y
a Sponge Diver
R I G H T
Caged Baboon, CircusWinter Quarters
s
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It i s hard fo r us to imagine th e hold th e
circus had on everyday life six ty or so
years ago. For many children, the day the
circus came to town w as the high poin t
of t he yea r .
The story of Sarasota and the cir-
cus is a sad one, particularly because
it began so happily. Back in the 19308
Joh n Ringling, the bra ins of the fiveRingling brothers , came to Sarasota for
a vacation. He was imm edia tely s t ruck
by th e town 's poten t ia l and began buy-
ing up everything in sight, developing
it , selling lots, laying o ut streets ; he
was, quite literally, building a city.
he twentieth centuary has
killed of f m an y th ing s, but
its saddest casua lty m ay
well be the circus.
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R I G H T
Balcony Car, Circus Train,
Winter Quarters, Sarasota
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L E F T
Ringling Bandwagon, Circus
Winter Quarters, Sarasota
P A G E S 36-37
Uninhabited SeasideResidence in Sarasota
(Ca d Zan, formerly the
Ringling Residence)
35
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3 6
He construc ted a palace on the bay for
himself a nd his wife M ab le and his col-
lec t ion of Old Masters and b egan work
on a Ritz G ar l ton Ho te l . In 1927 h e
moved his en t i re opera t ion here f rom
B ridgepor t , Connec t icut (where, inter-
estingly, W alker Evans also took ph o-
tographs in the '40 8 —b ut that's an o ther
s tory) . Sarasota suddenly becam e unique
in the world: it was a one-industry town,
and that industry was the c i rcus .
For years it was a role that Sara-sota played proudly . In no t ime the win -
ter quarters, with its m enager ie and
rehearsa ls open to the publ ic in an ou t -
doo r arena bu i l t to the exac t spec if ica-
t ions of M adison Square Garden , becam e
the biggest tourist a t t rac t ion in the
state. I t was the Disney W orld of its day.Tourists still show up looking for i t . And
w h e n the depress ion hi t , the circus
enabled the town to survive quite nicely.
T h e p e r f o r m e r s put down roots here, as
mu ch as c ircus perfo rm ers can , and for
a small town in Florida, Sarasota devel-
oped quite an ec lec t ic pop ula t ion m ix.
W e had aerialists f rom Europe ; we had
mid ge t s—for a t ime w e had more ex -
M un chk in s than any place in the wor ld ;
I used to see them in the supermarke t ,
but sadly most have passed away. And
we had the Ringlings themselves, with
their mans ions on the bay and their
Dynasty-like struggles over control oftheir empi re .
W hen Evans visited in 1941 the
circus w as still in its glory days, and
glor ious they were. One small ex ample:
the elephants he photograph ed going
through their paces in the ou tdoo r
arena would , in a ma tter of weeks , beginwor k o n their new showstopper for the
194? seaso n. I t was a "Circus Polka"
with mu sic com missioned especially
f rom Igor Stravinsky, to be choreo-
graphed by George B alanchine, with
c o s tu m e s b y N o r m a n B e l G e dd e s .
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B E L O W
Unfinished Boomtime Hotel
O P P O S I T E
Circus Trainer with
Performing Elephant,
Winter Quarters, Sarasota
38
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T h e stars were Old Mo doc, the grea t O P P O S I T E
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c ircus elephant bur ied somewhere in an
unmarked grave in the Kens ington Park
subdivis ion , and V era Zor ina , who was
then Balanchine's wife. T he N ew o r k
Times (April 10 , 1 9 42) p ron ou n ced it
"breathtaking":
The cast inclu ded f i f t y ballet girls, all in
f l u f f y p ink , and f i f t y danc ing e lephants .
They came into the ring in artificial, blue-
lighted dusk, first the l i t t le pink dance rs,then the grea t beasts. The li tt le dance rs
p i roue t ted in to the three r ings and the e le -
phant herds gravely swayed and nodded
rhythmically. The arc of sway widened and
the s to mping p icked up wi th the music .
In the central ring Mo d o c the Elephant
danced w ith amazing grace , and in t ime to
the tun e, closing in perfect cadence with
th e crashing finale. In the last dance f i f t y
elephants m oved in an endless chain
aroun d the great ring, trun k to tail , with
the li t t le pink ballet girls in the blue twi-
l ight behind them. The grou nd shook wi th
th e e lephants ' m easured s teps.
Jus t when things were getting really
bad and the c ircus needed every break i t
could get, Sarasota ungratefully zone d
it out of town . I t seem s that circu s pe o-
ple live with an inordinate am oun t of
strange eq u ipmen t—gau dy trailers, wild
animals, trapeze rigging in the b ack-
y a r d — a n d one by one a l l these necess i-
ties were prohib i ted . They h ad b e c o m e
a l i tt le em barrass ing in a carnival,
hon ky- ton k so r t of way. B esides, th e
town h ad foun d a new source o f weal th:
th e ret i red Midwesterners w ho began
moving here in the 19508.
Tw o Circus Trainers with
Performing Elephants,
Winter Quarters, Sarasota
PAGE 4 2
Three C ircus Train Cars,
Winter Quarters. .Sarasota
Televosion killed the
circus, But Sarasota, t
its sham e, helped out.
4io
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4?
Even though Ringling B ros , left
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in 1960, f irst moving to V en ice , then
to Tam pa, Sarasota remains a c ircus
town . Over a doze n smaller c i rcuses a re
headqua r te r ed here , though the i r p er -
f o r mance sch edules get smaller and
smaller with each pass ing yea r . Man y
of the great circus families are still here,
though mos t o f the youn ger m emb e r s
have left th e bus iness . My o ld neighbor
Gu nther W allenda taught his tory a t
Sarasota High. And O lympia Zacch in i ,th e daughter of the f i rs t wom an shot
out o f a can n on , is a p romin en t local
artist. There is one R ingling left in
t own , Pat Ringling Bu ck. She is a gossip
columnis t jus t l ike m e. Or she was.
N ow she's a critic .
4
P A G E 4 3
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Man at Work on Circus
Wagon, Sarasota
R I G H T
Detail of Circus Wagon,Sarasota
O P P O S I T E
Circus Winter Quarters,
Sarasota
4 4
B ut if the circus is but a shell of its
f o r mer self , i t has given Sarasota a his -
tory of c rea t ive endeavor unpara l leled
in the wo r ld . This is the town where the
f amous gag with all the clowns piling
out of the tiny car was invented. This iswhere Franz Unus l ived, t he m an who
could s tand on one f inger . And then
the re were th e elephants . What th e New
o r k Times didn't tell y ou ab ou t was an
incident that occurred during a rehearsa l
at the win ter quarters. Things w ere
going f ine until a sudden no ise f r ight-en ed the herd and they all took off en
masse, heading sou th. T he image of a
dist raught Geo rge B alanchine chas ing
a he rd of eleph ants, all c lad in p ink
tutus, down Lockwood Ridge Road—that ,
to m e, is Sarasota, a nd always will b e.
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P A G E 4 6
Circus Wagon (Calliope Car),
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Winter Quarters, Sarasota
P A G E 4 7
Ringling Bandwagon, Circus
Winter Quarters, Sarasota
48 A friend of mine , visiting Sara-
sota for the f irs t t im e, called it "pretty,
but not that pre t ty ." It is f lat as a bo ard.
The vegetation i s scrubby i n some areas ,tropical in o thers . There is nothing dra-
matic or brea thtaking about i t ; when
real beauty takes over, i t com es f rom
the changing colors of the sky and water.
This was som ething W alker Evans
was n o t much in te res ted in. He was
clearly a n artist who did not fall victim
to nature 's charms. N o wo nder Ansel
Adams hated h is work . The only natural
thing he really l iked was driftwood,
which at least he could collect. One can
even sense a certain hosti l ity in his
photograph s of the M angrove Coast 's
L E F T
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Inland Landscape
B E L O W
Pelican on a Dock
4 9
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True, the water does tend to be a little
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5*
tepid and calm a nd ba th tub- l ike , p a r -
ticularly in August, and they are eroding
at a n appalling rate . B ut they rem ain th e
town's pride and joy, not to me ntion a
little gold mine.
B ut where ar e they? A ll we get are
several shots o f misshapen palm trees
growing mu ch to o close to the waterl ine.
Wh e re is the Lido Casino, the glorious
Art Deco beach pavi lion c ham pioned
by his hos t , M r. Bickel , bu t sadly torndown in the 19608? W here are the pale
tourists , the tots with pails , th e shell
collectors?
Appareently
Evens just
wasnt a neach
erson.
P A G E 51
Tw o elicans o n a Dock
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O P P O S I T
elican
L E F T
Three alms
B E L O W
Gulf of Mexico
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54
enthusiasm for t ra i le rs m atches mine,
but I think that Evans may well be that
person , m y imaginary t ra i le r f r iend , s o
to speak .
For year s I 've been trying to get
people to pay at tent ion t o these fasci -nating things, but it's clear that they are
jus t no t going to . Tha t 's o ne of the rea -
sons it's so hard to do research about
t ra i le rs . There ' s been noth ing wri t ten
ab ou t t h e m . And it doesn 't look l ike the
si tuation is about to change. I 've be en
shopp ing a round m y coffee- tab le b o o k ,
Trailer Style, fo r years , wi thout a nibble .
People jus t don ' t get it .
B ut I have the feeling that they
were right u p Evans's al ley. Ima gine:
a l it tle m etal house that m oves. Ho w
could you not be fascinated?
But if he didn t like
the beach he certainly
like d tra ile rs. I've yet to meet another person whose
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56
And yes , there is a windmill. It
towers over the place, housing th e c lub-
P A G E S 54-55
Recreational Vehicle with
Striped Canopy
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How I would love t o show Evans a
few o f my favorite trailer parks: places
like M e l - M a r V illage up in B raden ton .
Here t he trailers are in what I call t he
"Toaster Style," which clearly caught
Evans's e ye, too [opposite page] . Every-
where yo u look there are long- f o r go t t en
names: First Lady, Pine Tree, Pal, Flame,
and New Mo on. Clear ly M e l - M a r V illage
belongs to the Classic Period.
O r rather the Early Classic Period.
Windmill Village N o r th — n o t to be con-
fused with Windmill V illage Sou th—isLate Classic. He re th e look i s 1959. T he
shape is larger, squarer. Gone is any pre-
tense that these things can move. Porche s
sprout, plus carports . B ay windows appear,
and if you 're lucky, you m ay even get fins.
house in its base, with the poo l right
in f ron t . And the streets are n a m e d
af te r Dutch che eses. A good dose o fw e l l - d o n e kitsch i s always a plus in a
trailer pa rk ; no one knew this b e t te r
than Evans.
Recent ly , when I was in-be tween
houses and had no place to live, I actu-
ally got to spend three weeks in such a
park. I t was called Tropical Acres, and
it was heaven . M y trailer w as a great
b ig double -wide, with so much space
that i t had rooms I never even went in .
(The only problem w as a cer ta in wobble
when y o u walked f ro m one end to the
other . ) M y neighbors w ere the n icest
people in the world. W hen my ca t got lost
they organized into t eams and comb edthe park, looking under every trailer
and even searching th e sewage treatment
plan t next door . M y favor i te neighbor
was the gu y right across th e street. H is
trailer was tiny, barely 8 b y 13. He and
O P P O S I T E
Trailer in C amp, Sarasota
57
L E F T
Statuette of a Cherub
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58
O P P O S I T E
Municipal Trailer Camp
his wife hauled i t down each win ter f r om
Mich igan . In their minuscule f ron t yard
they had a plas ter goose, and each day
they would dress
the goose in a d if feren toutfit . That goose h ad mo re c lo thes than
I did. If it was raining he wore his yellow
slicker, but if it was sunny and bright, you
never knew what h e might have on, and i t
reached the po in t whe re I got out of bed
in the morning jus t to see what the goose
might be wearing. M y favorite outfit was
a gendarme's un ifo rm, complete with a
l i t tle goose -s ized cape. Something tells
me Evans would have been very inter-
es ted in this goose; whene ver I think
about it, I can a lmost hear h im yel l ing
from beyond t he grave: "Get the camera "
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6 o he M angrove Coast was published
in 194? and was a big h i t — e x c e p t for
the pictures. They just didn't mesh with
the text. Bickel
was dispensing popular
history at its most eager-to-please, full
of "lore" about pirates and explorers
and moonshiners. The photographs
supplied by Evans were about some-
thing else entirely. The two sat there
in uneasy proximity as the first edition
ran its course, but for the second and
subsequent editions the photographs
were dropped entirely.
I doubt that Evans minded much.
Pearl Harbor was attacked while he and
Jane were walking on Siesta Bea ch ; f r om
then on, he, like everyone else, had a
di f f e r en t set of worries. He went to
Washington to investigate war work but
ended up becoming a movie critic for
Time. In 1948 he switched over to the
art department at Fortune. It was during
his tenure that Fortune achieved a level
of art direction and photography rarely
seen in a magazine. It could be argued
that his cushy corporate job kept him
f rom his art; in reality, i t — l i k e his Sara-
sota a s s i g n m e n t — b e c a m e his art.
Evans would cross paths with the
Mangrove Coast again and again. His
sister and brother-in-law settled on
Anna Maria, the barrier island just
north of Longboat, and he would come
to visit o f t en , usually to escape the
L E F T
Banyan Tree
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61
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6s
win te r chill or to r ecover f rom the ill-
nesses that plagued h is la ter life. B ut
lived and wrote here, e levat ing the lowly
mystery novel to art as he e x p l o re d t he
O P P O S I T E
Circus Building, Winter
Quarters, Sarasota
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the re is no r eco rd that he kep t up with
the Bickels or that he pa r t i c ipa ted in
th e life of Sarasota. I t wou ld have bee nout of charac ter if he had.
The B ickel house still stands, sud-
denly back in the n ews as Sarasota 's
la test controversy. Th ere are plans t o
demolish i t —i t has been derel ic t a n d
ab an don ed fo r over twenty y e a r s — i n
order to widen the s t reet in p repa ra t ion
fo r a new Ritz Car l ton Ho te l , an ee r ie
echo of Joh n Ringling's ea r l i e r d ream .
T he his tor ica l preservat ion is ts are up
in a rms as usua l , but everyone suspec ts
they will lose on this on e , too . T he city
has a lready des troyed most of i ts pas t,
usually af te r great civic debate and ago-
nizing feelings of guilt.B ut Sarasota remains a very lucky
town. Over a nd over i t has b een touched
by genius . First there was R ingling and
th e circus. Then came J o h n D . MacDo nald,
the m ystery novel is t. For th ir ty y ears he
mora l d i lemm as of that odd new cul ture,
the Sun Bel t .
And now we have these ex traor-d inary photographs b y Walker Evans ,
powerful evidence—Harr ie t B e e c h e r
Stowe notwiths tanding—that not every-
on e r e tu rn s f rom Florida "intensely
d isappo in ted , and even disgusted."
They presen t a Flor ida tha t doesn ' t exis t
an ymore , and what a strange place it
must have been , so foreign looking, so
handm ade. I f they show anything, i t is
that artif iciality is many layers deep.
And wha t b e t t e r way to illustrate this
than with pic tures of a small town in
Flor ida where the circus is king, peli-
cans fill the a ir , and the peo ple l ive in
little tin houses tha t they can move
f rom place to place?
63
The Photograph s
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6 4
Postcard Displa y
1941
6 7
/ i 6 x 5' /4 . in .
84 xM 956 874
P A G E i i
Ci r c us Tr ai ner Lead in g El ep hant
Wi nt er Quar t e r s , S ar as o t a
1941
6 V . 6 X 715 / 3 Z in .
84. XM 956.94 1
P A G E i i i
R ui n Tab b y Cons t r uc t i on
1941
7 / . 6 x 67/, 6 i n .
84.XM.956.844
P A G E i v
Tor n R i ng l in g Br ot her s P os t e r
1941
6 V s a x 8 V ,6 in .
84.XM.956.914
P A G E
R es or t P hot og r ap he r a t Work
1941
6 Y 4 x 8
l3
/ 1 6 i n .8 4 . x M . 9 5 6 . 9 4 8
P A G E i x
Woman wi t h Car f r o m
S t . P e t e r s b ur g Al l i g at or Far m
19415 - V . 6 X 5 V , i n .
84 xM 956 938
P A G E X
Tw o G i ra f fe s, Ci r c u s Wi nt er
Quar t e r s , S ar as o t a
19415 ' 5 / l6 x
37 A 6 i n .
84.XM.956.859
P A G E x i i
Conc r e t e B l o ck Bui l d i ng w i t h
S he l l Dec or at i on
1 9417 x 8
3 l/ 3 2 in .
8 4 X M 9 5 6 8 7 1
P A G E
M ys t er y S hi p R oad s i d e B ar
1 941
6
<
V i 6 x 7
3l
/ 3 a in .8 4 X M 9 5 6 9 8 6
P A G E 4
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S ouveni r S hop Di s p l ay
1941
6 '9 / 3 , x 8 i n .
84.XM.956.985
P A G E 6
R a ce t ra ck S p ec t a t or s
1941
82
5 / 3a x3
7 A 6 i n .
84.XM.956.1076
P A G E 7
Tw o M en Fishing
1941
59A6 x 4a '/ 3 3 in .
84.XM.956.908
P A G E 1 O
Sh u f f l e bo a rd P l a y er s
1941
35S/3,X7 /3 ain.
8 4 . X M . 9 5 6 . 9 1 3
P A G E 1 1
Cypress Swam p
1941
9 x 6 5 / 8 i n.
8 4 . X M . 9 5 6 . 8 7 9
P A G E 1 3
Aut o Gr aveyar d a t Tamp a
1941
15 A 6 x 73A6 in .
8 4 . X M . 9 5 6 . 9 4 4
P A G E 1 4
Upstate Roadside Landscape
1941
5 V i 6 x 6 5/ 3 3 in .
84.XM.956.987
P A G E 1 5
Fisherman i n S p ong e B o a t ,
Tar p on S p r ing s
1941
6a' / 3 3 x 6
3A 6 i n .
84 ^ 956 855
P A G E l 6
S p ong e-Di ver ' s B o a t ,
Tar p on S p r i ng s
1941
63/ s x 6 V 3 , i n .
84.XM.956.929
P A G E 1 7
C ro w d Wai t i ng a t S t r ee t Cor ner ,
Tamp a
1941
S S / a x ^ V s j i n .
84.XM.956.34 6
PAGE 1 9
Me n in the Street at Tamp a
1941
6 ' / 8 x 4is / i 6 i n .
8 4 . x M - 9 5 6 . 9 3 4
P A G E 2 O
Bl i nd Coup l e i n Tamp a Ci ty
S quar e H al l
1941
7 1 / , 6 X 7 I / 4 in .
8 4 - X M . 9 5 6 . 8 1 4
P A G E 2 1
Coas t a l Land s c ap e wi t h P al ms
1941
7 5 / 8 x 9 Vi6 in .
84.XM.956.919
P A G E 2 2
A n t e be l l u m P l a n ta t io n H o u s e
at Tallahasse e
1941
6 3 A 6 x 6 l3 / 3 2 in .
8 4 . X M . 9 5 6 . 9 2 3
P A G E 2 4
Negroes at Tallahassee
1941
6 ' 5 7 , 6 x 6 i n .
8 4 . X M . 9 5 6 . 8 8 2
P A G E 2 5
65
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6 6
T h e Gre e n Be n ch e s a t
S t . Pe te r sb u rg
1941
7 5 / , 6 x 63Y 3 2 in .
8 4 . X M . 956.930
P A G E 26
Winter Re sor te r s
1941
6 s / 8 X 7 ' 9 / 32 in .
84 .xM .956 .93 9
P A G E 27
Winter Resor te r s
194
73/ , 6 x 7 V 8 m .
84XM. 956. 889
P A G E 2 8
Sponge Diver 's Suit,
T a rpon S pr in gs
1941
8 9/ ,6 x 6 ' /4 in.
84. X M . 956. 868
P A G E 29
D e sc r ip t iv e Pa in t in g
by a Sponge Diver
1941
47/i 6 x 79/166 in .
84XM. 956873
P A G E S 3 0—31
Ga ged B a b o o n ,
C i rcu s Winter Qu a r te r s
1941
6 * 9 / 3 ax 5 5 / . 6 in .
8 4 .XM .9 5 6 .8 8 5
PAGE 32
Ba lcony Car, Circus Train,
Winter Qu a r te r s , S a ra sota
1941
7 5 / 8 x6 " 7,6 in .
84 XM 956 946
PAGE 34
Rin gl in g Ban dwagon ,
Circus Winter Qu a r te r s , S a ra sota
1941
83
/ 8 x 6 ' A i n .
84^.956.875
P A GE 35
U n in h ab i te d S e as ide Re s ide n ce in
S arasota (Ca 'd 'Z a n , f o r m e r l y t h e
Rin gl in g Re s ide n ce )
1941
6 V 8 x 8 ?/8 i n.
84 XM 956 827
P A G E S 3 6 - 3 7
U n f i n i s h e d B o o m t i m e H o t e l
1941
4l3
/ 3 2 x 7 5 / l6 i n .
84 XM 956 867
P A G E 3 8
C ircu s T ra in e r w i th
P e r f o r m i n g E l e p h a n t,
Win te r Qu a r te r s , S a ra sota
1941
6 " 7 , 6 x 8 in .
84 XM 956 829
P A G E 3 . 9
Tw o C i rcu s T ra in e r s
wi th Pe r formin g Ele ph an ts ,
Win te r Qu a r te r s , S a ra sota
1941
6 "7,6 x 8 '7/3a in.
84 XM 956 853
P A GE 4 O
Three Circus Train Cars,
Win te r Qu a r te r s , S a ra sota
( r e v e r se d p r in t in g)
1941
7 3 / 1 6 x 8 1 5/ 1 6 i n .
84 XM 956 8o3
P A GE 4 2
M an a t Work on C i rcu s Wagon ,
S a ra sota
1941
82 3
/3 2 x 6 *3/3 2 in .
84 XM 956 940
PAGE 43
D e ta i l of C i r cu s Wagon , S a ra sota
1941
83
/ 4 x 5 ' 5 / l6 i n .
84 XM 956 877
P A GE 44
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Ci r cus W i n t e r Qua r t e r s ,
Sarasota
1941
73/ , 6 x 8 7 / 3 , i n .
8 4 . x M . 9 5 6 . 9 4 3
P A G E 4 5
Ci r cus W a gon (Ca l l i op e Ca r ) ,
W inter Qu a r t e r s , Sa r a s o t a
1941
5l 3
A 6 x 9 ' / 8 i n .
8 4 . x M .95 6 . 8 5 i
P A G E 4 6
Ring l ing Ba ndwa gon,
C i r cus W i n t e r Qua r t e r s , Sa r a s o t a
1941
7I1
/ , 6 x 6aV 3 2 in .
84 . XM . 956 . 881
P A GE 47
In l a nd La nds ca p e
1941
7 ' 5 / 3 2 x 63
/ , 6 i n .
84 XM 956 887
P A GE 9L E F T
Pel i ca n on a Dock
1941
8 x 6 V i 6 i n .
84.xM.956.876
P A GE 9R I G H T
6 7
Two Pe l i ca ns on a D o c k
1941
6 l cV 3 2 x 5 "/,6m.
84. XM. 956935
P A G E 51
Pel i ca n
1941
71/ 4 x 5
1/ 4 i n .
84 XM . 956. 860
P A G E 5 -2
Thr ee Pa lms
1941
8 '/3a x 6 V 2 in.
84. XM. 956. 86
P A G E 58 L E F T
Gulf of M e x i c o
9 4
5 5 / 1 6 x 7 7 / 1 6 in .
84XM. 956. 981
P A G E 58 R I G H T
Recr ea t i ona l Veh i c l e wi th
St r ip ed Ca nop y
1941
53/ 4 x 8
11/ , 6 i n .
84. XM. 956. 983
P A G E S 54-55
Tr a i l e r in Ca mp , Sa r a s o t a
1941
63l
/3,x6l3
/3ain .
8 4 . x M . 9 5 6 . 9 4 5
P A G E 56
Sta tue t t e of a Cher ub
1941
8 V 8 X 7 ' / , 6 i n .
84 XM 956 930
P A GE 58
M unic ip a l T r a i l e r Ca mp
1941
6 ' /3 2 x 73/3 2 in .
84.XM956.798
P A G E 59
Ba nya n Tr ee
1941
7 9 / l 6 x 5 5 / l6 1 n .
84.XM956.948
P A G E 61
Circus Building, Winter Quarte:
Sa r a s o t a
1941
6 2
s/3 2 x 65/3. in.
84 .xM .956 .883
P A G E 6 2
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68
Library o f Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Evans, Walker, 1903—1975.
Walker Evans: Florida /
with an essay by Robert
Plunket.
p . cm .
I S B N 0-89386-566-8
i. Gulf Coast (Fla.)
Pictorial works. 2,. Gulf Coast
(Fla.) Description and travel.
3. Florida Pictorial works.
4. Florida—Description and
travel. I. Plunket, Robert.
II. Title.
F3i7.G8E93 2,000
975.9-dc2i 99-272 .79
CI P
© 2000 The J. Paul Getty Trust
1300 Getty Center Drive
Suite 400
L os Angeles, California
90049-1681
www.getty.edu/publications
Publisher
Christopher Hudson
Managing Editor
Mark Greenberg
The J. Paul Getty Museum
acknowledges the cooperation
of The Walker Evans Archive
at The Metropolitan Museum
of Art.
Project Staff
Editor
John Harris
Designer
Vickie Sawyer Karten
Production Coordinator
Suzanne Petralli Meilleur
Photographers
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Bound by
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M ap of Florida and line art
f r o m : Florida: A Gu ide to the
Southernmost State by the Fed-
eral Writers' Projec t of the
Work Projec ts Administration,
edited by the State of Florida.
Copyright 1989 by the State of
Florida Dept. of Public Instruc-
tion. Used by permission of
O x f o r d University Press, Inc.
F R O N T C O V E R : Trailer i n
Camp, Sarasota-, see page 56.
B A C K C O V E R : Three Palms-,
see page 58.
f related interest from
The J. Paul Getty Museum
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Walker Evans . The Getty Museum Collection
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Handbook of the Photographs Collection
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Looking at Photographs
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