Derek Evans’ camera lens caught most of life in Herefordshire in the 50s, 60s and 70s.
Beyond its borders he covered the Queen’s coronation for National Geographic in 1953, hit the shutter button for the Times and the Mirror before switching to 16mm moving images and helping usher in ITV’s fledgling news broadcasts. It was a long and storied career, long and storied enough to push him in front of the camera himself on rare occasions as he collected accolades and industry awards, exhibited at the Foto Musuem in Antwerp and was named to the Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society.
But he always kept his roots and his studio in Hereford, on Broad St.
He liked jazz and football, and shot Radford’s Rocket in ’72. But he loved Herefordshire. His portraits and documentary coverage of May Fair crowds and hop harvests still read like one long monochrome love-letter to the county.
Ten years’ after his death, his studio is working with the Herefordshire Life Through a Lens project and Catcher Media to bring to life some of Evans’ most iconic shots.
The Carousel film project – premiering at Borderlines 2019 next month – pairs interview footage from Herefordshire residents with the black-and-white pictures of jazz clubs and cattle markets and local political campaigns picked from his 200, 000-deep archive.
Carousel screens Monday March 11 at the Courtyard – just across the street from the ground where Evans spent so many Saturday afternoons capturing the mud and sideburns of the Bulls’ Golden Generation.
If you can’t make the screening – and tickets are going fast – HLTAL will be touring the film around the county. Head to their website here for more info.
Herefordshire Life Through A Lens is a broader project that takes great old photos of Herefordshire and presents them to modern audiences.Catcher Media has previously transformed pics from Herefordshire's agricultural heritage in to the films Chewing The Cud and Stories From The Hop Yards. HLTAL also works with Herefordshire Archives and Records Centre who hold the collection, and Herefordshire Libraries images will be scanned and made accessible via the Herefordshire Histories website.
