New book highlights work of photographer, Joyce Evans

Joyce Evans had an active presence in the Melbourne photography scene from the 1970s onwards, as a photographer with more than 18 solo exhibitions to her name, but also as a pioneer gallery director, collector and lecturer.  In 1976 Evans opened Church Street Photographic Centre, a specialist photography gallery and bookshop in Church Street, Richmond, Victoria. The gallery closed in 1982 and Evans enrolled at Photography Studies College then devoted her time to photography, principally portraiture, documentary and landscape. Evans worked as an honorary photographer for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in Central Australia and for over ten years documented Australian country towns and events for the National Library of Australia. She died in April, 2019.

During her life, she never developed a signature photographic style, but author Sasha Grishin’s extensive interviews with the photographer, coupled with unrivalled access to her photographic archive, reveal a sensibility that has become characteristic of her images. The book is a stylish and generously illustrated publication showing how Evans’ photography was about capturing the essence of her subjects. It illustrates Evans’ belief that in silence and stillness you come to feel the spirit of the subject, and that capturing this spirit was the photographer’s goal.  Two of Joyce Evans’ images are currently on display in the National Library’s Viewfinder: Photography from the 1970s to Now exhibition. A smaller showcase of her work is scheduled to open at the Library in 2023.