Edgar de Evia

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.

Birth and family

De Evia was born in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico. His mother was Pauline Joutard (1890–1957), a French-born pianist who performed under the stage name Miirrha Alhambra.^[1] His father was Domingo Fernando Evia y Barbachano (1883–1977), a wealthy landowner who was a member of two families that have been prominent in the politics and culture of Yucatán since the mid 19th century, one of which, the Barbachanos, has been described as "one of the most powerful of Yucatán's oligarchy".^[2][3][4]

His great-grandfather Don Miguel Barbachano y Tarrazo (1806–1859) was a five-time governor of Yucatán and the patriarch of a clan that was instrumental in developing the Mexican resorts of Cozumel and Playas de Rosarito in Baja California Norte and in popularizing the ruins of Chichen Itza as a tourist attraction.^[5] Among his cousins was Manuel Barbachano Ponce, the Mexican film producer and director.

On 30 June 1912, at the age of two, Evia arrived with his family in New York City aboard the liner "Progreso".^[6] He graduated from The Dalton School in 1931.^[7]

Based on immigration and other official records, it appears that Evia altered his surname to de Evia sometime after 1942, at which time he was using the professional name Edgar D. Evia.^[8]

Careers

Homeopathy research

Photographic self-portrait by Edgar de Evia reflected with the oil portrait by M. Jean McLane of himself as a child (circa 1990).

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."^[9]

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."^[10] "Editorial high-key food photography was introduced by Edgar D'Evia in 1953 for the pages of Good Housekeeping."^[11]

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."^[12]

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."^[13]

In 1968,^[14] 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.

Models photographed

Often using the ornate backgrounds of the historic Rhinelander Mansion in New York—much of which he leased in the 1950s and 1960s, used as his residence, and often rented out portions of as studios and offices—de Evia was hired, through his agent, David Chimay, to photograph fashion models in assignments for fashion magazines and commercial advertising.

Personalities photographed

De Evia also produced commissioned photographic portraits of individuals well known in the social, film, music, and theatre worlds, including Ethel Fogg (Mrs. William Brooks Clift), mother of Montgomery Clift; Erik Rhodes, American film and Broadway singer and actor; Nordstrom Sisters, American sister act, international cabaret singers; Roman Totenberg, Polish-American violinist^[15] and Ralph Lauren,^[16] American fashion designer.

Editorial photography

De Evia worked prolifically for Applied Photography,^[17][18] Town & Country, Vogue,^[19] Vogue Paris, Architectural Digest,^[19][20] Glamour, Bride's, Good Housekeeping,^[21] Art and Antiques Magazine, House & Garden, Home, Maison & Jardin, Vogue Decoration, Look, Shaggy Lamb Fashion,^[22] The New York Times Magazine, McCall's, Ladies' Home Journal, New York Magazine (December 19, 1988 Feature article on de Evia and his apartment),^[23] After Dark, Art Direction, Photography, Popular Photography, Women's Wear Daily and W.

According to records held by the Condé Nast Publications Library, in 1984 alone, de Evia had 193 photographs published in House & Garden, primarily of interiors of houses owned by individuals such as Helen Hayes and Gloria Vanderbilt. The Condé Nast Publication Library is an archive facility which holds, among other things, thousands of typewritten 3 x 5 cards which serve as an early index to all photographers and writers (as well as subjects and celebrities) whose work was published in any and all Condé Nast magazines from the early 1900s until the 1990s, when all such material was put on computer. In the case of photographers, for instance, the cards list in which issue and on which page number an image (or images) by that particular photographer appeared on. According to these index cards, more than 1,000 photographs by de Evia were published in Condé Nast magazines, on subjects ranging from fashion to food to interiors. These were printed in Vogue, Architectural Digest, and other magazines, from the 1950s until the 1990s.

Books

Books that have been illustrated with de Evia's photography include:

• The American Annual of Photography, New York: American Photography Book Department, 1953.
• Good Housekeeping Book of Home Decoration by Mary L. Brandt, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1957.
• Picture Cookbook by The Editors of LIFE, Mary Hamman, Editor, New York, NY: Time, Inc., 1958. Second edition 1959, Third edition 1960.
• The Spacemaker Book by Ellen Liman, Nancy Stahl and Lewis Wilson, New York: Viking Press, 1977.
• Fashion: The Inside Story by Barbaralee Diamonstein, New York: Rizzoli, 1985
• House & Garden's Best in Decoration by the Editors of House & Garden, New York: Condé Nast Books, Random House, 1987. De Evia's photos include the front jacket.
• Glamour's On The Run by Jane Kirby, Glamour Food Editor, New York: Condé Nast Books, Villard Books, 1987. De Evia's photos include the front & back jacket.
• Interior Design by John F. Pile, New York: H.N. Abrams, 1988.
• The Tiffany Gourmet Cookbook by John Loring, New York: Doubleday, 1992.
• House Beautiful Decorating Style by Carol Cooper Garey, Hearst Books, 2005. 1992 edition published by Hearst Communications.
• Victoria On Being a Mother by Victoria Magazine Staff, Hearst Books, 2005. (1st. edition and ©1989)
• Culinary Traditions II: A Taste of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania collected by the Waynesboro Historical Society, Morris Press, 2007.

Commercial photography

De Evia worked for Beautyrest by Simmons (1959), Borden Ice Cream (Lady Borden campaign 1956–1960),^[24] Celanese Corporation,^[25] Empress Chinchilla (fur ads), Fieldcrest, Gorham Silver,^[26] hats by Mr. John of John-Frederics,^[27] Herman Miller Office Furniture (1957 campaign), Leather Industries of America,^[28] Maximilian Furs (1950s, all ads had the credit "DeEvia"), McCall's patterns (all ads had the credit "Photograph by Edgar de Evia"),^[29] Milliken (1970 Breakfast Show program), Myrurgia (Maja Perfume 1964 Ad with credit "DeEvia"), Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation (Life Fiberglas campaign 1958) and Steinway & Sons (1967 catalog).

Gallery

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edgar de Evia.

• 
  The Little Church Around the Corner (The Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration, NYC)
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  David McJonathan-Swarm in a 1968 de Evia portfolio photograph.
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  1969, David McJonathan-Swarm in front of the World Trade Center under construction
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  A male nude, taken in the 1970s.
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  Professional model Dovima, in an 1950s ad.
• 
  Professional model Sunny Harnett taken in the 1950s.

Relationships

In the 1950s, de Evia's companion and business partner was Robert Denning, who worked in his studio and who would become a leading American interior designer and partner in the firm Denning & Fourcade.^[30] From 1966 until his death, de Evia's companion and business partner was David McJonathan-Swarm.

Death

Edgar de Evia, age 92, died at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City from pneumonia following a broken hip.^[31] His ashes were interred in the columbarium of the Little Church Around the Corner in New York City.^[32]

References

External links

• Edgar de Evia's Official Homepage
• Edgar de Evia's biographic sketch at Find A Grave