EVANS, FREDERICK HENRY

born June 26, 1853, England died June 24, 1943, London English photographer whose studies of cathedrals of England and France are considered among the world's finest architectural photographs. Little is known of Evans' early life. He first attracted attention as a London bookseller and self-appointed educator of the local businessmen and clerks who formed the majority of his clientele. Because he accompanied his transactions with informative and stimulating conversation, his shop became known as the university of the city clerk. During this period he championed the work of two of his steady customers, the dramatist George Bernard Shaw and the artist Aubrey Beardsley, securing for Beardsley his first commission. In 1898 Evans retired from bookselling to devote all of his time to photographing the cathedrals of England and France. A fastidious craftsman whose goal was the perfect print, he often spent weeks studying the light in a cathedral at various times of day, waiting to catch the precise effect he sought. His style, which emphasized a cathedral's immense spaces and infinite variety of light and textures, culminated in his A Sea of Steps, Wells Cathedral (1903). A man of strong opinions on many subjects, Evans was constantly involved in controversy. His most violent disputes concerned what he considered to be the proper practice of photography. He believed that the photographic image should never be altered after the film was exposed. Equally abhorrent to him was the tendency emerging in the early 20th century to photograph fleeting situations in modern life. He thought that only static views of idealized beauty were worthy of photography. His advice was largely ignored by younger photographers. He spent the last years of his life virtually forgotten, privately publishing limited editions of his own photographic reproductions of his collection of drawings.