Published by Thames & Hudson, “The Last Years of Walker Evans” is a poignant firsthand account by Jerry L. Thompson, who served as Evans’s principal assistant and close companion during the final four years of the photographer’s life. Starting from their meeting at the Yale School of Art in 1971, Thompson provides an intimate portrait of a man often considered the father of modern American documentary photography. The narrative delves into Evans’s complex personality, his financial struggles, and the physical frailties of aging that eventually hindered his ability to use a traditional camera. The book is particularly valued for its reproduction of Evans’s late-career experiments with the color Polaroid SX-70, alongside informal photographs of the artist at his Connecticut home, offering a soulful “Boswellian” insight into the master’s twilight years.
