The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Black-and-white photograph of a stand displaying produce with two kids holding watermelons out front. The sign above them reads largest "FISH," then a painted fish the size of the word before and "&" symbol and, below that, "Honest Weights, Square Dealings." Flanking the doorway are two boards labeled "Special' To Day River Fish" with lists of types of fish and prices. A rectangular sign over the stand reads "F.M. Pointer The Old Reliable House Mover."

Roadside Stand, Vicinity Birmingham, Alabama

1936

Walker Evans

(American, 1903–1975)

America

gelatin silver print, printed later

Image: 19 x 23.7 cm (7 1/2 x 9 5/16 in.); Matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.)

Wishing Well Fund 1975.36

Location: Not on view

Description

This image reflects Evans’s fascination with vernacular architecture and handmade signs, which he collected. It is an urbane version of a penny postcard, a work with humor but also sophistication. Evans confounds the perspective we expect to see. Instead of objects receding into space, there are flat layers that resemble a stage set: the boys holding watermelons in the foreground, the men and curtsying girl in the middle ground, and the truncated figure in white occupying center stage in the extreme background. They all perform, providing a semicomic but true-to-life vision of roadside America.

Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. Reproduced: P. 150
From Riches to Rags: American Photography in the Depression. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 13-December 31, 2017).
Oxford, Museum of Modern Art, Sept. 18 - Oct. 31, 1976: "Walker Evans Photographs." Catalogue no. 37.
{{cite web|title=Roadside Stand, Vicinity Birmingham, Alabama|url=false|author=Walker Evans|year=1936|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1975.36