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Highway Corner, Reedsville, West Virginia

Walker Evans1935

The J. Paul Getty Museum

The J. Paul Getty Museum
Los Angeles, United States

In this photograph of a highway corner in West Virginia, signs proliferate and dominate, with no visible person to read them. The gas station, the traveler's last stop out of town, anchors the corner, a solid brick building that proudly reveals its nationalistic bent with the bold announcement that "AMERICAN GAS" is sold there. A formidable, solid telephone pole cuts vertically through the frame in the foreground while another peeks out from behind it in the distance. Wires busily intersect the sky, and a large, round sign for the telephone company announces the communication system. Despite all the evidence of devices to keep people connected, the image projects an ironic sense of emptiness and desolation.

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  • Title: Highway Corner, Reedsville, West Virginia
  • Creator: Walker Evans
  • Date Created: 1935
  • Location Created: Reedsville, West Virginia, United States
  • Physical Dimensions: 25.4 × 20.6 cm (10 × 8 1/8 in.)
  • Type: Print
  • External Link: Find out more about this object on the Museum website.
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Terms of Use: Open Content
  • Number: 84.XM.129.5
  • Culture: American
  • Credit Line: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
  • Creator Display Name: Walker Evans (American, 1903 - 1975)
  • Classification: Photographs (Visual Works)
The J. Paul Getty Museum

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