1910-07-30

EDGAR DE EVIA (d. 2003) American photographer, born in Mérida, Yucatán. He moved with his family to New York City in 1915. 

From 1966 until his death, de Evia’s companion and business partner was interior designer, David McJonathan-Swarm. 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.

Frequently producing images using 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.” Editorial high-key food photography was introduced by Edgar D’Evia in 1953 for the pages of Good Housekeeping.

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 and Ralph Lauren, American fashion designer.