Christopher Evans

Christopher Evans

2016 Annual Juried Competition
Honorable Mention

Statement:
Before formally studying photography, I was on track to be a geographer. Not just for my love of mountains and rivers, but because I am fascinated by the idea of place defined as a cultural imprint on a location. Specifically, I am interested in the often staged, pop culture images that are used to describe places recognized formally or informally as tourist destinations. Such images offer insight into the relationship a culture shares with a location — and what relationship the owning culture wants to portray about a location to those living inside and outside of that culture. In my current body of work, Cultural Heritage, I act as both tourist and photographic ethnographer, experiencing the culture of tourist destinations, concentrating on the world outside of the frame of the iconic descriptions of place. Then placing that work and my experience of place under the microscope to analyze the systems that cultures use to preserve, reinforce and strengthen iconic images.

Bio:
Chris Wright Evans was born in 1991 and raised in Central Texas. In 2013 he graduated from St. Edward’s University where he studied photography. After graduating he promptly moved to New York City where he now lives and works. In 2014, Evans was selected as a finalist and alternate for a Fulbright Arts Grant to Hungary. Evans works as the assistant to photographer Joel Meyerowitz, and assisted in the production of the second publication of Cape Light. Currently Evans is experimenting with making plaster casts of foot prints, and taking more photographs.  In the fall Evans will be submitting applications for an MFA in photography. Evans’ work has been exhibited across the United States, and has been featured prominently in print and online.

Artist’s website: www.cwrightevans.com