Considered to be one of the originators of American documentary photography, Evans had an extraordinary ability to see the present as if it were already the past. Here, the prices especially show us the passage of time: five-cent hot dogs and hamburgers, and oysters served up at the counter for a quarter a dozen. Other markers are the crumbling brick sidewalk and Coca-Cola sign. Less obvious details, like the buckling tarpaper on the roof of the structure behind, the slightly ominous triangular shadow, and the mysterious shadow of a person, at left, communicate the melancholy feeling of the Depression years.

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