McNair Evans (b. 1979; Laurinburg, North Carolina) grew up in a small farming town and became interested in photography while studying cultural anthropology at Davidson College in North Carolina. Evans is the 2017 Duke University, Archive of Documentary Arts Innovation Award recipient, a 2016 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, 2015 PDN 30 Award recipient, and 2014 John Gutmann Photography Fellowship Award recipient.
In 2013 Evans was a Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco, CA Artist-In-Residence as well as the recipient of Slow Exposure’s Paul Conlan Prize. His first monograph, Confessions for a Son, (Owl & Tiger Books, 2014) sold out within months. Evans’ work has been featured in many publications including Harper’s Magazine, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Financial Times, and on the cover of William Faulkner’s Flags in the Dust.
His photographs are held in public and private collections including those of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and The Sir Elton John Photography Collection.