Joyce Olga Evans , B.A., Dip. Soc. Stud. (21 December 1929 – 20 April 2019) was an Australian photographer active as an amateur from the 1950s and professional photographic artist from the 1980s, director of the Church Street Photography Centre in Melbourne (1976–1982), art curator and collector, and tertiary photography lecturer.

Early work

Evans was presented with a Leica camera by her wealthy father and her earliest surviving photography is from 1949 to 1951 and records marches, demonstrations and youth events including the 1949

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Festivities may also be held the night before, known as May Eve. T ...

March; the 2nd World Festival of Youth and Students,

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, 1949; and the

Melbourne University The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

Labour Club In Britain, the National Union of Labour and Socialist Clubs (NULSC) is a socialist society representing Working men's clubs affiliated to the Labour Party (many are also affiliated to the Working Men's Club and Institute Union The Workin ...

participating in demonstrations in 1951. She studied painting with

John Olsen John Wayne Olsen, AO (born 7 June 1945) is a former Australian politician, diplomat and football commissioner. He was Premier of South Australia between 28 November 1996 and 22 October 2001. He is now President of the Federal Liberal Party, C ...

at the Bakery Art School, Sydney in 1967/1968, but much later 'fell in love' with photography at the

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

Art Fair, which led first to a career as a

gallerist An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells Work of art, works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art. An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and build ...

, then as a practicing photographer.

Church Street Photographic Centre

In 1976 Evans opened Church Street Photographic Centre, a specialist photography gallery and bookshop in Church Street,

Richmond, Victoria Richmond is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Yarra local government area. Richmond recorded a population of 28,587 at the 2021 census, with a medi ...

. It was the third commercial photographic gallery in 1970s Melbourne to open after Brummels (1972) and

The Photographers Gallery ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...

(1973) and showcased International 19th and 20th Century photography including

Berenice Abbott Berenice Alice Abbott (July 17, 1898 – December 9, 1991) was an American photographer best known for her portraits of between-the-wars 20th century cultural figures, New York City photographs of architecture and urban design of the 1930s, and ...

Eugène Atget Eugène Atget (; 12 February 1857 – 4 August 1927) was a French ''flâneur'' and a pioneer of documentary photography, noted for his determination to document all of the architecture and street scenes of Paris before their disappearance to mod ...

Julia Margaret Cameron Julia Margaret Cameron (''née'' Pattle; 11 June 1815 – 26 January 1879) was a British photographer who is considered one of the most important portraitists of the 19th century. She is known for her soft-focus close-ups of famous Victorian m ...

,Corrie Perkin, 'A camera on history,' ''The Age'', Monday 18 Jun 1979, p.8

Henri Cartier-Bresson Henri Cartier-Bresson (; 22 August 1908 – 3 August 2004) was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as cap ...

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, Elllott Erwitt,

Robert Frank Robert Frank (November 9, 1924 – September 9, 2019) was a Swiss photographer and documentary filmmaker, who became an American binational. His most notable work, the 1958 book titled ''The Americans'', earned Frank comparisons to a modern-da ...

, Hill and Adamson,

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,Tony Perry, ''Distortions' show a new perspective,' The Age, Friday November 1978, p.2''

Les Krims Leslie Robert Krims (born August 16, 1942) is an American conceptualist photographer living in Buffalo, New York. He is noted for his carefully arranged fabricated photographs (called "fictions"), various candid series, a satirical edge, dark humo ...

, Martin Lacis, James Newberry,

Arnold Newman Arnold Abner Newman (March 3, 1918 – June 6, 2006) was an American photographer, noted for his "environmental portraits" of artists and politicians. He was also known for his carefully composed abstract still life images. Early life and caree ...

, Bill Owens,

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,''The Age'', Thursday 28 May 1981, p.10

W. Eugene Smith William Eugene Smith (December 30, 1918 – October 15, 1978) was an American photojournalist.Peacock, Scot. "W(illiam) Eugene Smith." ''Contemporary Authors Online'', Gale, 2003. ''Biography In Context'' He has been described as "perhaps the si ...

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Alfred Stieglitz Alfred Stieglitz (January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was kno ...

Paul Strand Paul Strand (October 16, 1890 – March 31, 1976) was an American photographer and filmmaker who, along with fellow modernist photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century. ...

,Beatrice Faust, 'Four different views of life and loves,' ''The Age'' Tuesday 18 Apr 1978, p.2

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, and Minor White.Geoff Strong, 'In a dark age behind the camera,' in ''The Age'', Monday, Nov 30, 1981, page 10 Significant Australians were also shown, including Venise Alstergren, Robert Ashton,

John Cato John Chester Cato (2 November 1926 – 30 January 2011) was an Australian photographer and teacher. Cato started his career as a commercial photographer and later moved towards fine art photography and education. Cato spent most of his life ...

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, Fiona Hall,

Bill Henson Bill Henson (born 7 October 1955) is an Australian contemporary art photographer. Art Henson has exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Venice Biennale, the National Gall ...

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and Mark Strizlc.Church Street Photographic Centre Archives, 1976–1982 The gallery also housed a bookshop that stocked a range of local and international books on photography and the latest specialist photographic periodicals and supplied Melbourne's schools, colleges and tertiary institutions. In 1981, in order to keep their gallery solvent Evans sold off her inventory of books and magazines; they became a foundation for 'The Printed Image' bookshop, which also specialised exclusively in photography. The gallery space was also used to present visiting speakers and for photographic workshops, tutored by photographers and writers of the era including Pete Turner, editor of ''

Creative Camera ''Creative Camera'' (also known as "CC") was a British monthly/bi-monthly magazine devoted to fine art photography and documentary photography. The successor to the very different (hobbyist) magazine '' Camera Owner'' (which had started in 1964), ' ...

'', UK; Jean-Marc Le Pechoux, publisher/editor of ''

Light Vision ''Light Vision'' was a bi-monthly Australian photography magazine that existed between 1977 and 1978. Foundation and duration ''Light Vision'' magazine, subtitled "Australia’s international photography magazine", was launched in September 1977, ...

'';

; and Ian Cosier. Church Street also housed a photographic

darkroom A darkroom is used to process photographic film, to make prints and to carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of the light-sensitive photographic materials, including film and ph ...

and framing facilities (which were used by artists and photographers, notably by German artist

Herbert Zangs Herbert Zangs (27 March 1924 – 26 March 2003) was a German artist. Zangs was born and died in Krefeld. He studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine We ...

during his Australian visit in 1981). In 1975, when Australian photography was developing a higher profile and becoming collectible, Horsham Regional Art Gallery Director Jean Davidson made the decision that the gallery would specialise in the medium, and during the following years consulted on purchases with the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

’s

Jennie Boddington Jennifer "Jennie" Boddington (née Blackwood) (1922 – 15 November 2015) was an Australian film director and producer, who was first curator of photography at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, Melbourne (1972–1994), a ...

and with Evans, who was then running Church Street Gallery. One of the works she later acquired was Evans’ ''The Ascent'' (1993). Over November and December 1981, Evans held a ''Final Retrospective'' of photographers who had shown in the gallery since 1977, then, despite the gallery being profiled in the European ''print letter'', closed the Church Street premises in 1982, and relocated the gallery's collection and inventory to a private studio, from which she continued to operate. In 1978 she was appointed Approved Commonwealth Valuer for Australian and International photography from the 19th Century to the present day for the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program. Evans continued acting as a specialist adviser on photography for a number of public institutions and prominent private collectors in Australia.

Photographer

After closing the Church Street Gallery, Evans enrolled at

Photography Studies College Photography Studies College, commonly abbreviated to PSC, is a privately owned independent tertiary photography college established in 1973, located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. History 1973 founding Photography Studies College was first ...

in 1982, then devoted her time to photography, undertaking portraiture, documentary and landscape. In the latter genre her work includes an extended photo essay on roadside verges where she found wildlife road kills and fatalities. Completed between 1988 and 1996, Evans made the shots with a

Widelux The Widelux is a fully mechanical swing-lens panoramic camera first developed in Japan in 1958, by Panon Camera Shoko. There are both 35mm and medium-format models. Instead of a shutter, the camera has a slit that exposes the film as the l ...

F7 35mm panoramic camera held in a vertical orientation and she often rotated the camera about the axis of its swiveling lens to produce distortion. The photo-book ''Only One Kilometre'' was made by Evans in the small Balcombe Estuary Reserve at Mt Martha on the

Mornington Peninsula The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, and is connected to the mainland in the north. Geogra ...

, the photographs presented with poetry and literary contributions from Graeme Kinross-Smith, Pat Raison and

Chris Wallace-Crabbe Christopher Keith Wallace-Crabbe (born 6 May 1934) is an Australian poet and emeritus professor in the Australian Centre, University of Melbourne. Life and career Wallace-Crabbe was born in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond. His father was Ken ...

. She also photographed in the

Dandenong Ranges The Dandenong Ranges (commonly just The Dandenongs) are a set of low mountain ranges, rising to 633 metres at Mount Dandenong, approximately east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The ranges consist mostly of rolling hills, steeply weathere ...

; along the Hume Hwy; in the

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and outback Australia, most notably

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, Oodlawirra,

Menindee Menindee (frequently but erroneously spelled "Menindie" ) is a small town in the far west of New South Wales, Australia, in Central Darling Shire, on the banks of the Darling River, with a sign-posted population of 980 and a population of 551. ...

, and

Lake Mungo Lake Mungo is a dry lake located in New South Wales, Australia. It is about 760 km due west of Sydney and 90 km north-east of Mildura. The lake is the central feature of Mungo National Park, and is one of seventeen lakes in the Wor ...

; vineyards and rural villages in the

South of France Southern France, also known as the South of France or colloquially in French as , is a defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi atlantique'', A ...

; and the old Jewish cemetery in the centre of

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

. Evans's portrait photographs were taken mainly in black and white, at close range, and were usually

environmental portrait An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject's usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject's life and surroundings. The term is most frequently used of a genre of photography ...

s that emphasised the psychological connexion between the sitter and his or her own space. They form a diverse cross-section of Australian society from anonymous sitters to intelligentsia and personalities, among them Marianne Baillieu;

Barbara Blackman Barbara Blackman ( Patterson; born 22 December 1928) is an Australian writer, poet, librettist, broadcaster, model and patron of the arts. In 2004, she donated $1 million to a number of Australian music organisations, including Pro Musica, the A ...

; Baron Avid von Blumenthal;

Tim Burstall Timothy Burstall AM (20 April 1927 – 19 April 2004) was an English Australian film director, writer and producer, best known for hit Australian movie ''Alvin Purple'' (1973) and its sequel ''Alvin Rides Again''. Burstall's films featured ea ...

; Dur-e Dara;

Robert Dessaix Robert Dessaix (born 17 February 1944) is an Australian novelist, essayist and journalist. Biography Robert Dessaix was born in Sydney and adopted at an early age by Tom and Jean Jones, after which he was known as Robert Jones. Tom Jones, a ...

;

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;

Elena Kats-Chernin Elena Davidovna Kats-Chernin (born 4 November 1957) is a Soviet-born Australian pianist and composer, best known for her ballet ''Wild Swans''. Early life and career Elena Kats-Chernin was born in Tashkent (now the capital of independent Uzbek ...

; Joan Kerr; Ellen Koshland;

David Malouf David George Joseph Malouf AO (; born 20 March 1934) is an Australian poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright and librettist. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2008, Malouf has lectured at both the University of Quee ...

;

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Dame Elisabeth Joy Murdoch, Lady Murdoch (née Greene; 8 February 1909 – 5 December 2012), also known as Elisabeth, Lady Murdoch, was an Australian philanthropist and matriarch of the Murdoch family. She was the widow of Australian news ...

;

Lin Onus Lin Onus (4 December 1948 – 23 October 1996), born William McLintock Onus and also known as Lin Burralung McLintock Onus, was an Australian artist of Scottish- Aboriginal origins. He was the son of activist Bill Onus. Early life Willia ...

; Jill Reichstein; and Chris Wallace-Crabbe. Evans worked as an honorary photographer for the

Department of Aboriginal Affairs The Department of Aboriginal Affairs was an Australian government department that existed between December 1972 and March 1990. History The Department had its origins in the Office of Aboriginal Affairs (OAA), which was established ...

Central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and i ...

and for over ten years documented Australian country towns and events for the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

Education and lecturing

Evans played an educational role in Australian photography. She taught history of photography at Melbourne's

RMIT University RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city ...

; was appointed inaugural assistant director of Waverley City Gallery (now Monash Gallery of Art), 1990–1991, the first municipal public collection in Melbourne to specialise in photography; inaugurated a course on the History of Photography taught by Daniel Palmer and was appointed

Research Fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a pr ...

at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

(1997–2010). Evans continued conducting lectures and photographic workshops, predominantly in Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

* National Trust Gallery, Melbourne. * 2010: Obscura Gallery, St Kilda East, Vic.''Joyce Evans: Imaging the Spiritual 1980–2010'', exhib. cat. Melbourne: Obscura Gallery, 2010

Group exhibitions

* 2011: ''Phiction: Lies, Illusion and the Phantasm in Australia Photography'', Horsham Regional Art Gallery and touring eleven regional and metropolitan public galleries. * Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery. * 2015: ''Streetwise'', Photonet Gallery, Fairfield, February 1–22 * 2019 ''In Her Words : A NETS Touring Exhibition curated by Olivia Poloni'',

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

Regional Art Gallery 2 March – 19 May;

Wangaratta Wangaratta ( ) is a city in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, from Melbourne along the Hume Highway. The city had an estimated urban population of 19,318 at June 2018. Wangaratta has recorded a population growth rate of almost 1% annually ...

Art Gallery, 01 Nov – 15 Dec.

Awards

* Hasselblad Masters (Landscape Division), 1985 * Print of the Year Award, IAPP Victorian Division (1985) * Print of the Year Award, IAPP Victorian Division (1991) *

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

(OAM) in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours for service to photography.

Collections

Evans' work is held in the following permanent public collections: * Musée de la Photographie, Mougins, France *

State Library of Victoria State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in the ...

State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establish ...

(Mitchell Library Collection) *

Jewish Museum of Australia The Jewish Museum of Australia, not to be confused with the Sydney Jewish Museum, aims to "explore and share the Jewish experience in Australia". It is located in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne. History The Jewish Museum of Australia was estab ...

Castlemaine Art Museum Castlemaine Art Museum is an Australian art gallery and museum in Castlemaine, Victoria in the Shire of Mount Alexander. It was founded in 1913. It is housed in a 1931 Art Deco neo-classical building constructed for the purpose, heritage-listed ...

* Horsham Regional Art Gallery * Monash Gallery of Art *

Museum of Victoria Museums Victoria is an organisation which operates three major state-owned museums in Melbourne, Victoria: the Melbourne Museum, the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks Museum. It also manages the Royal Exhibition Building and a storage faci ...

, Melbourne *

Immigration Museum, Melbourne The Immigration Museum focuses on Melbourne and Victoria’s immigration history and celebrates the diversity of the community through shared storytelling. Located on Flinders Street in Melbourne, Victoria in the Old Customs House, the heritage ...

;

Tapestry

In 1995, Evans' ''Selby Daffodils (Cotswald Farm)'', was made into a tapestry by the

Australian Tapestry Workshop The Australian Tapestry Workshop (formerly known as the Victorian Tapestry Workshop) is a not-for-profit organisation that employs weavers to create tapestry pieces and promotes tapestry creation though collaboration with contemporary artists. Fou ...

, Melbourne.

Publications

* * * ''Joyce Evans: Imaging the Spiritual 1980–2010'', exhib. cat., Melbourne: Obscura Gallery, 2010 * * *

References

External links

National Library of Australia

Picture Australia

Internet Archive: Imaging the Spiritual 1980-2010 at Obscura Gallery

Eternal Prague: Joyce Evans in ''Australian Photography''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Joyce 1929 births 2019 deaths Australian photographers Photographers from Melbourne Australian women photographers Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia 20th-century women photographers People from Elsternwick, Victoria