Artist Information
Artist
John Henry Evans, ARPS (1924-2007)Role
PhotographerDate made
1977Time Period
20th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in Bristol, England, John Henry Evans along with Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002), was one of the pre-eminent professional photographers in Ottawa, Canada from the early 1960s to the mid-1990s. Evans decided early on to become a photographer and he studied at the London Polytechnic and briefly taught there before becoming a staff photographer for an industrial manufacturer. Arriving in Canada in 1948 with just $21, he opened his own studio “John Evans Photography” in Ottawa within 15 years.
He became, for some 25 years, the chief photographer of Rideau Hall (officially Government House), the official Ottawa residence of both the Canadian monarch and their representative, the governor general of Canada. Evans was permanently on call to photograph visiting heads of states and ambassadors. He captured U.S. President Richard Nixon, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and the newborn Justin Trudeau and many others including every governor general of Canada from Lord Alexander to Jeanne Sauvé. He took the official Silver Jubilee portrait of the Queen Elizabeth II. He reportedly said his five favourite subjects, in order, were former Governor General of Canada Lord Harold Alexander, former Canadian Prime Ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King and John Diefenbaker, former labour leader Claude Jodoin, and former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. His negative collection was distributed among Library and Archives Canada, the Government House archives and the City of Ottawa Archives.