Walker Evans was, quite simply, "the most influential American photographer of the twentieth century," according to Bruce Jackson's appraisal posted on the University of Buffalo Art Gallery Web site. Jackson credited Evans with influencing such photographers as Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, and Diane Arbus. Jed Perl went even further than Jackson, noting in his New Republic review Evans was "perhaps the greatest of all photographers." Other critics credit Evans with the documentary style in photography, though Evans himself bristled at the use of that term. Evans is also evocative of an entire era. Writing in Newsweek, Malcolm Jones noted: "Walker Evans's pictures of Southern main streets, tenant farmers, Saratoga in the rain, subway riders, rundown barbershops and peeling billboard posters supply most of our defining images of the Depression."

Evans's style was described by a Contemporary Photographers essayist as "straight, direct, unhurried, unobtrusive, transparent; his tone, as calm...