Bobevansphoto : ArckPhoto

ArckPhoto

Bob Evans Bio Bob comes from a background of, perhaps one of the most creative professions, engineering. Some may think that this is not such an obvious background for an artist, however, all good engineers know that creating something from nothing gives you tremendous creative rush and oft times you find that the best engineers are frequently very accomplished musicians, artists and in my case, photographers.. Landscape Photography of Bob Evans A late comer to art photography Bob spent his early career working in engineering designing lifesciences equipment and then latterly moving into general management. During this time he and his family have lived in England, Florida, New York and latterly in Massachusetts. Bob travels frequently on business and always takes a camera with him as you never know what that perfect image will appear. During this time he had a very active interest in photography, probably coming from his father who is also an accomplished photographer. Over the years as he honed his expertise he found that what could best be loosely described as ‘landscape’ was his metier. Particularly in the abstraction from reality of key elements helped by almost exclusive use of black and white. Influences Early influences were Fay Godwin, a very accomplished english landscape photographer, sadly no longer with us. Her work evokes a deep empathy with the land and her keen eye and technical skill inspired him greatly. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fay_Godwin). Ansel Adams whose images of Yosemite and the American West together with the deep technical knowledge and skill in producing the finished print and treating the entire process as a pre-visualised expression was particularly welcome. Bill Brandt and Weegee, where the technical element was secondary to the image and the emotions evoked by them. Similarly with Cartier Bresson and his ‘decisive moment’, although Bob has never particularly focused on people photographs, on the occasions he has you can most defiantly see there influences, as shown in the 'people' gallery. Photo’s by Bob Evans Building on that creative engineering background Bob continued to hone his his technical skill and artistic eye. An early Nikon fan, Bob’s first ‘proper’ camera was an Nikon FM, an excellent manual workhorse that was used extensively. Over the years Bob has used many other cameras. For those ‘decisive moment’ shots he always carried a Minox 35GT, usually loaded with Ilford HP5. For his main camera he rapidly moved beyond 35mm and whilst he was using film his preferred outfit was a Bronica ETRS and then moved to a Mamiya RB67 and a home made 5x4. All of his darkroom work was done at home with a full setup for black and white and colour and many happy hours spent in the darkroom. Ilford was the brand of choice for monochrome work usually FP4 for larger formats and HP5 for 35mm both developed in ID11. This background in the craft of photography certainly helped in the transition to digital and he now spends more time in front of the computer then he ever did in the darkroom! he now uses Nikon systems exclusively, keeping an old D100 for Infra Red images, which have always been an interest to him. Perhaps this is driven by the abstraction from reality aspect of Bobs work which is so prevalent in his work. Having an eye for an image that would tell a story Bob has a key guideline that he rigorously applies, no manipulation of the subject is allowed. Bob strongly believes in taking the subject ‘as-is’ no posing of subjects, moving items etc. He greatly admires photographers who are expert in that technique, however, for himself it is capturing the essential essence of the subject matter that is vital to him. Bob has had his work published in the national press in England covering news events as well as having several shows in both the UK and in New York and has recently decided to move onto the web. He is a keen member of the Blackstone Valley Art Association and Arts Worcester and as well as photography he is also a keen sculptor and abstract painter as shown in the art gallery.