American Photographs
E298370
American Photographs is a landmark 1938 photobook by Walker Evans that powerfully documents American life during the Great Depression and helped define modern documentary photography.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| American Photographs canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2798000 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: American Photographs Context triple: [Walker Evans, notableWork, American Photographs]
-
A.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (photographs by Walker Evans)
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (photographs by Walker Evans) is a landmark collection of documentary images depicting impoverished tenant farmers in the American South during the Great Depression, created to accompany James Agee’s influential text of the same name.
-
B.
Pictures for Photographs
Pictures for Photographs is a photography book by British fashion photographer Miles Aldridge, showcasing his highly stylized, cinematic, and vividly colored imagery.
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C.
The Making of Americans
The Making of Americans is an experimental modernist novel by Gertrude Stein that traces the history and psychology of an American family through highly repetitive, innovative prose.
-
D.
The Decisive Moment
The Decisive Moment is a landmark 1952 photography book by Henri Cartier-Bresson that crystallized his influential concept of capturing fleeting, meaningful instants in everyday life.
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E.
On Photography
On Photography is a section of The New York Times Magazine that explores the art, culture, and impact of photography through essays, features, and visual storytelling.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: American Photographs Target entity description: American Photographs is a landmark 1938 photobook by Walker Evans that powerfully documents American life during the Great Depression and helped define modern documentary photography.
-
A.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (photographs by Walker Evans)
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (photographs by Walker Evans) is a landmark collection of documentary images depicting impoverished tenant farmers in the American South during the Great Depression, created to accompany James Agee’s influential text of the same name.
-
B.
Pictures for Photographs
Pictures for Photographs is a photography book by British fashion photographer Miles Aldridge, showcasing his highly stylized, cinematic, and vividly colored imagery.
-
C.
The Making of Americans
The Making of Americans is an experimental modernist novel by Gertrude Stein that traces the history and psychology of an American family through highly repetitive, innovative prose.
-
D.
The Decisive Moment
The Decisive Moment is a landmark 1952 photography book by Henri Cartier-Bresson that crystallized his influential concept of capturing fleeting, meaningful instants in everyday life.
-
E.
On Photography
On Photography is a section of The New York Times Magazine that explores the art, culture, and impact of photography through essays, features, and visual storytelling.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
photobook
ⓘ
photography book ⓘ |
| artHistoricalMovement |
American documentary photography
ⓘ
New Deal-era photography ⓘ |
| associatedExhibition | Walker Evans exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art ⓘ |
| author | Walker Evans ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| criticalReception |
highly influential in art and documentary photography circles
ⓘ
landmark in the history of the photobook ⓘ |
| designBy | Museum of Modern Art design department ⓘ |
| exhibitionVenue |
Museum of Modern Art, New York
ⓘ
linked to:
Museum of Modern Art
|
| exhibitionYear | 1938 ⓘ |
| firstEditionFormat | hardcover ⓘ |
| genre |
documentary photography
ⓘ
photographic essay ⓘ |
| hasISBN | 087070204X ⓘ |
| hasLaterISBN | 0870708358 ⓘ |
| hasRevisedEdition | later MoMA editions ⓘ |
| hasTheme |
architecture and signage
ⓘ
portraiture of anonymous subjects ⓘ social class in America ⓘ urban and rural American landscapes ⓘ vernacular culture in the United States ⓘ |
| historicalContext |
Great Depression in the United States
ⓘ
linked to:
Great Depression
|
| includedIn | canonical histories of photography ⓘ |
| influenced |
modern documentary photography
ⓘ
photographic book design ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| libraryOfCongressSubject | United States—Social life and customs—20th century—Pictorial works ⓘ |
| medium | black-and-white photography ⓘ |
| notableFor |
depiction of vernacular American architecture
ⓘ
formal rigor and typological approach ⓘ portrayal of everyday American people ⓘ sequencing of images without extensive captions ⓘ |
| numberOfPhotographs | 87 ⓘ |
| photographicProcess | gelatin silver prints ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1938 ⓘ |
| publisher |
The Museum of Modern Art
ⓘ
linked to:
Museum of Modern Art
|
| recognizedAs |
foundational work of documentary realism
ⓘ
milestone of 20th-century photography ⓘ |
| relatedWorkOfAuthor | Walker Evans’s Farm Security Administration photographs ⓘ |
| structure | two-part sequence ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
American life during the Great Depression
ⓘ
American society ⓘ |
| timePeriodDepicted | 1930s United States ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: American Photographs Description of subject: American Photographs is a landmark 1938 photobook by Walker Evans that powerfully documents American life during the Great Depression and helped define modern documentary photography.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.