McNair Evans

Slideshow Back to Artists

Education
Continuing Education, San Francisco Studio School, San Francisco, CA, 2013
M.F.A. Photography, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA, 2011
Mike Smith, Mentorship/Directed Study, Johnson City, TN, 2010
Alec Soth, Mentorship/Directed Study, Minneapolis, MN, 2009-2010
Laura Harden, Mentorship/Directed Study, San Francisco Studio School, San Francisco, CA, 2009
B.A. Anthropology, Davidson College, Davidson, NC, 2001

 

Select Awards & Honors
Bi-Lateral Delegate, United States Japan Leadership Program, 2023
Emerging Leaders Seed Grant, Mineta Transportation Institute, 2023
Research Associate, Mineta Transportation Institute, 2023
Innovation in Documentary Arts Award, Archive of Documentary Arts, David M. Rubenstein Rare
Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University, 2017
Guggenheim Fellow, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, 2016
John Gutmann Photography Fellow, John Gutmann Photography Fellowship Trust, 2015
Echode: 2-Year Project Grant, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 2014
Artist-In-Residence, Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco, CA, 2013
The New Super Stars of Southern Art #36, Oxford American, 2012
Curator’s Choice Award, 1st Place, CENTER, 2011

Select Collections
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Permanent Collection
The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University
David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University
Sir Elton John Photography Collection

Passenger Portraits (In-Progress)

Of course it can be a beautiful way to travel, but for the most part long-distance trains are for people in transition, trying to find work, or reuniting with people they love whom they hope will love them back. This project explores that search for something just out of reach and a bit intangible. It is about the desire for change and the possibility of hope fulfilled.

Traveling by 15-day rail passes; the train interior provides a stage consistent in color and design for portraits exploring a passenger’s true journey. Passengers write why they are traveling, where they are coming from, and where they hope to go. A veteran from Chicago describes decades of heroin addiction, “It’s reality facing reality, but that fantasy, it’s a real motherfucker.” Individually their stories are about a desire for something to happen, or a situation they are trying to rectify. Collectively, they sketch our nation’s identity. A single mother commuting to the oil fields of North Dakota. A teenage son hoping to reunite with his father.

This project combines original photography with first person, passenger-written accounts to explore contemporary American culture through the status of our passenger rail system and those currently traveling by train. Ultimately this on-going project will be disseminated in book format combining content from all routes.