Diane Evans
Untitled
About the Artwork
Diane Evans was renowned for her expertise in photography, her passion for the medium’s nuances, and her ability to identify the work of other photographers with ease. This deep fluency in “writing with light” (according to the Greek etymology of φωτο-γραφία or photo-graphy) translates into her own work with startling clarity. Here, a masterful composition exemplifies how Evans understood the eye of the pinhole camera as it perceives the transit of silvery daylight: entering through a rippled window, moving over a frosted bottle, into a crystal sphere. Subtle but present are two vintage photographs that speak to Evans’s expansive knowledge of photographic history. The gelatin silver prints visually recede into shadow, symbolic of the delicate art of exposure to light – and the risk of overexposure – that governs analogue photography. Known for her humility, Evans rarely exhibited her works during her lifetime. This unpretentious self-effacement resonates in the agency she bestows upon the camera, gazing up at the bottle from the vantage of a small but brilliantly keen observer.
Untitled
Date unknown
Framed original chromogenic print
Unique
18" x 18"
Estimate: $5,000
Please Note: The work will be available for collection in March 2024.
Courtesy the artist's estate
About Diane Evans
Diane Evans (b. 1954, Coquitlam, BC; d. 2023, Vancouver, BC) graduated with honours in 1978 from the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art + Design), where she studied under veteran photographer Nina Raginsky. She continued her career as a professional photographer, including an appointment as official photographer for Vancouver’s Expo ’86, and in 1987 began working at Presentation House Gallery where she helped to organise hundreds of photographic exhibitions over thirty-six years, and founded a photobook store that continues to be regarded as one of Canada’s finest. Since 1996, Evans was a legendary instructor in photography at ECUAD, leaving an indelible impression on many of the most influential photographers to emerge from Vancouver over the past two-and-a-half decades. Evans’s work is held in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada and the Vancouver Art Gallery as well as private collections. She will be honoured in a solo exhibition at The Polygon Gallery in Fall 2023.
Photo: Yoichi Okubo
