Kitchen Wall, Alabama, 1936, Walker Evans

While looking at Michael Wolf's photos of back alleys in Hong Kong (one is shown below), I was reminded of this image by Walker Evans. In many ways they seem to have the same sensibility. Depicting the neatness, thriftiness and ingenuity of people living simply, and making the most of their environment. Yet neither of the photos is sentimental -- they are just artful in the way they document what the photographer found worthy to record.