James H. Evans (b.1954)

American photographer James Evans has become the foremost interpreter of Texas's iconic Big Bend Region, which has been his life's passion and photographic subject since moving to Marathon, Texas in 1988. Approaching the rugged land and its people as an artist, documentarian, and historian, Evans has produced a body of work that rejects clichés in favor of honest, deeply observed photographs. Evans has dedicated his life to photographing every aspect of the Big Bend area including landscapes, nightscapes, people, animals, weather, and events for the past 35 years. The result is a vast archive of work that documents a place as it changes. Portraits of babies then men, grassland then fire, characters that are gone and a lifestyle that does not exist anymore best exemplify the importance of time as a major element of his work.

In 2003, Evans released his first book Big Bend Pictures, comprised of his highly regarded black-and-white photographic work. This was followed by Crazy from the Heat in 2011 which presents Evans's most fully realized portrait of Big Bend, featuring magnificent landscapes in full color, including spectacular panoramas that reveal the immensity of the desert. It contains dramatic time-lapse, night photography and sensuous nudes that exhibit the striking similarities between the contours of the human form and the land. Completing the collection, several portraits of Big Bend residents reflect Evans's long connection with and affection for people of this remote place. Both books have sold out of all their printings. In 2024, in honor of the 20th anniversary, Big Bend Pictures will be re-released including updated images, stories, and insights.

Throughout his career, Evans' work has continued to develop with variation in content and formatting of the images - a range between color, black and white, traditional darkroom, digital, square format, and long panoramas. His work has been featured in Texas Monthly and in many other publications both in the United States and the United Kingdom. His photographs are in the photography collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas; The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, Austin, Texas; The Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas; The El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas; The Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Texas; The Longview Museum of Fine Arts, Longview, Texas; The San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas; The Grace Museum, Abilene, Texas; and the Witliff Collections, San Marcos, Texas.

Artist Statement

In December of 1988 I moved to Marathon, Texas, to be close to Big Bend National Park. I felt that this area and the people who live here would provide me with the inspiration I was looking for to produce a body of work that would be meaningful, if only to me, for a lifetime. The concept is working. Ever since I decided to be a photographer (in my early twenties), I had been searching for the thing — the thing being my niche, MY Work.

Portraiture fit me best. I enjoy the one-on-oneness of it and the collaboration between myself and my subject. It can be very intimate. I had not been as comfortable with landscape work. I felt that if I was going to do it, though, I would have to be as true and honest as in my approach to portraits, and not get caught up in the photographic clichés and over-gelled pretty pictures I'd seen in the travel books. A friend of mine said, “There are thirty pictures of the park, and everybody takes them.” That has stuck in my head since she said it, and though I have to admit to taking a few of them, I see what she meant.

I see myself as a portrait photographer living in an amazing landscape. Last year, though, I knew I had finally achieved landscape-photographer status. Twenty years of watching, photographing, and living in this desert have given me a profound understanding of light, the people of the desert, and the desert itself. That is not to say that I have learned everything. I am still awed by this desert, these people, and this beautiful landscape every day. Living in a small community is like living with a big family. I witness the give-and-take of life on a personal level. No one escapes the things that make up the human condition; in fact, they only seem more apparent here because there is no anonymity, and I witness people's lives unfold for good and bad day to day.

When I am driving to the park, the pressures of life peel away and an inner happiness envelops me. This is still true after all this time. I usually start out of sync, and it takes me a day, or three, to get in the groove. I can always tell when I've achieved "photo mode." I am happy, I am quick with my equipment, new thoughts and ideas bubble up like champagne, and when I am hiking nothing sticks me. When I am in the park, I am working on the many series I have started. Some ideas will play out over hundreds of images (the night work) and some more quickly (the Santa Elena series). Some are works in progress – The Heat; The Quiet; Live Lives (as opposed to still lives). They take years to exhaust, and they are never quite over; it is just that something new takes hold of my interest and attention. This is the natural progression of artistic endeavor.

Making art is a journey through one's personal imagination, one's growth, and the influence of one's surroundings and discoveries – an interpretation of these things. I don't necessarily create anything new but recycle ideas through my own imagination. The truth is, I only do it for me. I am using my brain to its capacity. I am not a doctor or banker because I couldn't be even if I wanted to. Describing myself as an artist has always been somewhat uncomfortable for me, because an artist is not necessarily one who paints, or makes sculpture, or photographs, or whatever. Being or becoming an artist, to me, is more about approach. I think it is something we are all born with and either develop through time, or resist, or ignore.

I love Big Bend. I love the desert. I love the heat. I love the mountains. I love seeing whole storm systems form, build, and dissipate. I love knowing what phase the moon is in, and seeing the stars and constellations, and the feeling that I am living on a planet. I love seeing wild animals and trying to communicate with them. I love being naked in the desert, physically and metaphorically. I believe an open mind, curiosity, and slowing down to really look at things are necessary for the creative process. Not long ago I was hiking across the desert, and I saw a seashell. It was paper thin, and I dared not touch it. It had to have been there for millions of years. That is perfection of design. Truly a wonder. What a beautiful planet we started out with.

James H. Evans (b.1954)

1988 Moves to Marathon

1990 Becomes regularly featured in Texas Monthly and is presently a contributing photographer for the publication

2003 Publishes Big Bend Pictures

2008 Westin Galleria Hotel, Dallas commission

2011 Publishes Crazy from the Heat

Selected Exhibitions

2024 Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

2019 Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

2016  Hunt Gallery, San Antonio, Texas

2015  Stephen L. Clark Gallery, Austin, Texas

2013  Stephen L. Clark Gallery, Austin, Texas

2008  Stephen L. Clark Gallery, Austin, Texas

2008  Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas

2008  Al Rendon Gallery, San Antonio, Texas

2008  Stephen L. Clark Gallery, Austin, Texas

2007  Westin Hotel, Dallas, Texas

2007  Alpine Gallery Night, Alpine, Texas

2005  Adair Margo Gallery, El Paso, Texas

2004  Al Rendon Gallery, San Antonio, Texas

2004  Tadu Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico

2004  Adair Margo Gallery, El Paso, Texas

2003  Stephen L. Clark Gallery, Austin, Texas

2003  Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, Texas

2003  Museum of the Big Bend, Alpine, Texas

2002  Adair Margo Gallery, El Paso, Texas

2002  Terlingua House, Alpine, Texas

2001  El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas

2001  Houston Center of Photography, Houston, Texas

2001  Afterimage Gallery, Dallas, Texas

2001  Anam Cara Gallery, Ketchum, Idaho

2001  Marfa Book Company, Marfa, Texas

2000  Longview Museum or Art, Longview, Texas

1999  Austin Museum of Art, Austin, Texas

1998  Stephen L. Clark Gallery, Austin, Texas

Selected Collections

Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Texas

The Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas

El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas

Harry Ransom Center, Austin, Texas

Longview Museum of Fine Arts, Longview, Texas 

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, Texas

San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas

Westin Hotel, Dallas, Texas

Wittliff Collections, San Marcos, Texas

James H. Evans

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