Michael Evans, Official Photographer of Reagan's First Term, Dies at 61

By: Jay DeFoore

Michael Evans, a newspaper, magazine, and Presidential photographer who captured some of the defining images of Ronald Reagan?s political career, died Dec. 1 surrounded by family members at his home in Atlanta, Ga. Evans, who had battled cancer for the past four years, was 61.

Evans rose to prominence in the photo world in the ?70s and ?80s, and worked for The New York Times and Time magazine at the height of his career. He got his start in photography at the Port Hope Evening Guide (Ontario, Canada), and worked as a photographer for a short time at The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), and later as a picture editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

But Evans will be remembered most for the lasting images of Reagan, many of which conveyed the lighter side of the man?s personality. Evans first photographed Reagan in 1976, just weeks before he would lose in his bid for the 1976 Republican Presidential nomination.

On assignment for an equestrian magazine, Evans traveled to Reagan?s Santa Barbara, Calif., ranch, where he met a tanned and relaxed man known for his fondness for horses. The one iconic image of that day is a close-up shot of Reagan wearing a cowboy hat and a broad smile stretching deep into the wrinkles in his face.

A few years later, Reagan?s 1980 campaign team liked the photo so much it used it in promotional materials without Evans? permission, an apparent violation of copyright law. Evans, who was then covering the campaign for Time, considering filing a lawsuit, but the two parties eventually reached an amicable settlement.

When Reagan took office, Evans became his personal photographer, a demanding, pressure-filled job that required a good eye, quick reflexes, and long trips away from home. Two months into Reagan?s first term, Evans found himself at the scene of an assassination attempt on the President?s life.

""It was a weird, foggy day,"" Evans recalled for this writer in 2004, just after Reagan?s death. ""I heard the shots but I thought somebody had thrown firecrackers under the limo. If I'd known it was gunfire I don't know that I'd have been so eager to go in there.""

Evans was not in the Secret Service motorcade that sped Reagan and Press Secretary James Brady to the hospital. He ended up taking a cab back to the White House, and later to the hospital where Reagan and Brady were being treated for gunshot wounds.

""I saw Reagan on a gurney with an oxygen mask and he looked green,"" Evans said during the 2004 interview. ""It was like my father had been shot. I didn't even try to make a picture.?

When asked last year to describe the job of photographing the President, Evans downplayed its sexiness. ?In many ways the job is more like being a valet than like the secretary of state,"" Evans said.

Evans left the administration after Reagan?s first term to embark on an ambitious personal portrait project titled ?People and Power: Portraits from the Federal Village.?

The extensive body of work included photographs of 595 subjects ranging from the chief justice, members of Congress, and journalists to a secretary and a Capital janitor. The work was made into a book and was exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution?s Corcoran Gallery in 1985.

Speaking at the opening night gala for the exhibition, Reagan got laughs when he described Evans? photo of veteran presidential reporter Helen Thomas: ?For 24 years Helen has been a member of the White House press corps, keeping six Presidents and scores of fellow reporters on their toes by putting in some hours -- or more hours, writing more dispatches, and asking more questions than just about anybody else. Helen's portrait suggests that she's a woman of great charm, and that's true. It also suggests that she's a woman of immense determination, and believe me that, too, is true. [Laughter]?

Evans eventually put down the camera and concentrated on technology development, but in time his love for photography brought him back to the industry, this time with a whole new set of skills. In the second stage of his career, Evans mastered digital image processing and distribution, and built photo database systems used by Time magazine, The Miami Herald, the Keystone photo agency in Canada, and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, Calif. His last job, and one that he held for several years, was chief technical officer at the photo agency ZUMA Press, where the bulk of his photographic archive is currently housed.

ZUMA director Scott McKiernan said Evans always kept his sense of humor, and late in life he was more interested in solving database problems than reliving his photographic successes. McKiernan said Evans did not want to be remembered for the one Reagan photo, but his entire body of work. Still, McKiernan said that although Evans was not the type of person to sit down and watch TV, he was a fan of the White House drama ""The West Wing,"" and enjoyed pointing out which elements of the show conformed to his own experience and which did not.

Evans' photos were revisited in 2004 with Reagan's death. Both Time and Newsweek chose Evan?s photo of Reagan in the cowboy hat to illustrate their covers, a fact he seemed to cherish. At the time, Michelle Stevenson, Time?s director of photography, explained that the photo ?was that one image that summed up [Reagan?s] whole life, not just his presidency. ... It shows the essence of the man.""

Evans is survived by his wife Story and their two daughters, Abigail, 20, and Madeleine, 16. Evans also has four adult children: Ewen Riddell, Drew Evans, Megan Evans, and Amanda Evans. He also is survived by two sisters, Judy Evans and Esme Comfort, and one brother, Tony Evans, and has four grandchildren. Evans supported Alzheimer's research, homelessness awareness and other efforts to improve the length and quality of life, but he was uncomfortable calling attention to his charitable activities.

A memorial service in honor of Evans will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2005 at 3:45 p.m. at St. Anne?s Episcopal Church, 3098 St. Anne?s Lane, Atlanta, Ga. Donations may be made to the Michael Evans Memorial Library Fund at St. Anne?s Episcopal Church, Atlanta, to the Arts and Photography programs at Davidson College, Woodward Academy, or to Hospice Atlanta.