"First and Last" Rephotographed and Scanned

In 1936 Walker Evans photographed people during the Depression in Alabama. In 1979 Sherrie Levine rephotographed Walker Evans' works from the exhibition catalog "First and Last." In 2001 Michael Mandiberg scanned Evans' photographs and made AfterWalkerEvans.com and AfterSherrieLevine.com to make these photographs available to whoever would like to download, print, and frame them to put up in their homes or where ever else they would like.

On Mandiberg's website AfterSherrieLevine.com there are images with links to the high-resolution exhibition-quality images. People can also download a "certificate of authenticity" for the photograph they choose.

Mandiberg seems to be trying to let the viewer have the physical work that has value to them and for the new owner of Evans' famous photographs to be able to say that they own an "authentic" reproduction of the works. What I don't understand is why Mandiberg doesn't create his own work and make it avalible to the public instead of using a famous photographer's work that may or may not draw more attention than his own.

Levine has made a career out of ripping off famous works of art by male artists from the early 20th century. Levine claims that she is trying to show that it is relevant that women artists were absent at this time, I cannot see how she has accomplished this. For example, without having someone take a photograph of her taking a photograph of Evans' photographs how do we know that this is her point unless we research and read interviews. She has failed. Levine is nothing but a wannabe artist copying other artists' original ideas and coming up with some ridiculous concept to put herself in a cozy, money-making place in the art world. Mandiberg is no better than Levine, do they both honestly think that these artists would be okay with people taking their work and putting their names on it?


This is one of Mandiberg's scanned images of Walker Evans' photograph in the catalog from "First and Last."

This is an image of the certificate of authenticity that you can print out, date, and sign to prove you have an original Mandiberg rip-off.