Edgar de Evia

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Edgar de Evia bigraphy, stories - Fashion

Edgar de Evia : biography

July 30, 1910 – February 10, 2003

Edgar Domingo Evia y Joutard, known professionally as Edgar de Evia (July 30, 1910 – February 10, 2003), was a Mexican-born American photographer.

In a career that spanned the 1940s through the 1990s, his photography appeared in magazines and newspapers such as Town & Country, House & Garden, Look and The New York Times Magazine and advertising campaigns for Borden Ice Cream, Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation, Jell-O among other corporations.

Careers

Homeopathy research

Edgar de Evia, circa 1930. Logo designed by Edgar de Evia in pen and ink and used by the photographer on all of his business transactions the last thirty years of his life.

Edgar served as the research assistant to Dr. Guy Beckley Stearns, a homeopathic physician with whom he wrote and published articles and one book about homeopathy.

For Laurie’s Domestic Medicine, a medical guide published in 1942, Stearns and Edgar D. Evia contributed an essay called "The New Synthesis", which was expanded that same year into a book entitled "The Physical Basis of Homeopathy and the New Synthesis". In the New England Journal of Homeopathy (Spring/Summer 2001, Vol. 10, No. 1), Richard Moskowitz, MD, called the Stearns-Evia article "a cutting-edge essay into homeopathic research that prophesied and actually began the development of kinesiology, made original contributions to radionics, and dared to sketch out a philosophy of these still esoteric frontiers of homeopathy at a time when such matters were a lot further beyond the pale of respectable science even than they are today."

Photography

Frequently producing images utilizing soft focus and diffusion, de Evia was dubbed a "master of still life" in the 1957 publication Popular Photography Color Annual. In a review of the book, The New York Times stated that "Black and white [photography] is frequently interspersed through the book and serves as a reminder that black and white still has a useful place, even in a world of color, often more convincingly as well. This is pointed up rather persuasively in the portfolio on Edgar de Evia as a ‘master of still life’ and in the one devoted to the work of Rene Groebil.""Color in Review: Popular Photography’s Color Annual Surveys Medium’s Current Status", The New York Times, 19 May 1957, page X17 "Editorial high-key food photography was introduced by Edgar D’Evia in 1953 for the pages of Good Housekeeping."Advertising Directions by Edward M Gottschall and Arthur Hawkins, New York: Art Directions Book Co., 1996.

William A. Reedy, editor of Applied Photography, in a 1970 interview for the Eastman Kodak publication Studio Light/Commercial Camera, wrote that de Evia:

"has been a photographic illustrator in New York City for many years. His work has helped sell automobiles, food, drink, furniture and countless other products. To fashion accounts he has been known as a fashion photographer, while food people think of him as a specialist in still life. While, in fact, he is a photographer, period. He applies his considerable talent and experience to whatever the problem at hand.""about Photography with Edgar de Evia" by William A. Reedy, p. 16 Studio Light/Commercial Camera v.2 no. 2 1970.

Melvin Sokolsky, a fashion photographer who has created iconic images for Harpers Bazaar and Vogue, considered Edgar de Evia one of his earliest influences, saying, "I discovered that Edgar was paid $4,000 for a Jell-O ad, and the idea of escaping from my tenement dwelling became an incredible dream and inspiration."Melvin Sokolsky’s Affinities by Martin Harrison as reproduced on the web retrieved June 29, 2006. For a career-wide view of Sokolsky’s work, see his . For reference to his work for Vogue and other publications, see at bauhaus.com]

In 1968,According to David McJonathan-Swarm, who was de Evia’s companion and business partner from 1966 until 2003. de Evia founded and served as creative director of a catalogue-photography company that produced photographs for a number of department-store catalogs which included Sakowitz and Gimbels.