Michael Evans

News Obituary Article

ATLANTA: Michael Evans, Reagan photographer

By KAY POWELL

Being President Ronald Reagan's personal photographer put Michael Evans at the center of history.

Of his time in the White House from 1981 to 1986, he said among the photographs that stood out to him were of President Reagan's attempted assassination; Mr. Evans was standing right behind him. Others were the president's firing of the striking air traffic controllers, his decision to go ahead with the Strategic Defense Initiative and the attempted kidnapping of the president from a Texas golf course, said his wife Story Evans of Atlanta.

Perhaps Mr. Evans' most famous photograph is of a laughing President Reagan in his cowboy hat. It appeared on the covers of Time, Newsweek and People magazines the same week, an unprecedented occurrence.

Mr. Evans produced two books of art photography: "People and Power: Portraits from the Federal Village" and "Homeless in America." As technology emerged, he developed software and a database system for cataloging, archiving and retrieving photographs, his wife said.

The memorial service for Mr. Evans, 61, who died of cancer at his Atlanta residence on Thursday, will be 3:45 p.m. Tuesday at St. Anne's Episcopal Church. The body was cremated. Cremation Society of Georgia is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Evans, who moved to Atlanta in 1989, said it was his job never to stand between the president and the press pool. That's why he was behind President Reagan when shots rang out, Mrs. Evans said.

In an article he wrote in July 2004 for The Digital Journalist, Mr. Evans said, "I just lowered my camera as the shots rang out. Instinctively, I fired a frame as I raised my camera, then took one more before I dropped to the ground myself. Those frames show where all the bodies fell."

After the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, Mr. Evans chose 50 pictures by 24 photographers and mounted an exhibit at the Atlanta Gallery of Photography.

The High Museum at Georgia-Pacific Center featured the "Homeless in America" exhibit he curated. "The exhibition of 64 photographs gives the issue a poignant human face," wrote Atlanta Journal-Constitution visual arts critic Catherine Fox at its opening in 1988.

Mr. Evans worked briefly in the AJC's photography department in 1989.

At home, Mr. Evans didn't touch a camera. "I became the family photographer," his wife said. "He always wanted to be in the moment and he wanted to have it chronicled."

Survivors include four daughters, Megan Evans of Toronto, Amanda Evans of Monterrey, Calif., and Abigail Evans and Madeleine Evans, both of Atlanta; two sons, Ewen Riddell of Raleigh and Drew Evans of Los Angeles; two sisters, Esme Comfort of Canmore, Alberta, Canada, and Judy Evans of Ottawa; a brother, Tony Evans of Calgary, Alberta, Canada; and four grandchildren.

© 2005 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution