the photographer
I was born in East Los Angeles to Beverly and Leon Goldstein, just ten minutes from where my parents grew up and met in Boyle Heights. In the early 1970s, our family moved to a close-knit Jewish community in the Fairfax area. I grew up surrounded by Holocaust survivors and attended Hebrew school until we later relocated to North Hollywood.
After my first photography class over the summer before entering high school, I was hooked. I loved the process of capturing moments and telling stories through images. Seeing that passion, my mom bought me my first medium-format film camera—and not long after, I photographed my very first wedding.
All these years later, I still feel that same excitement every time I pick up a camera. I’ve had the privilege of working with thousands of couples, individuals, and families, capturing moments they’ll treasure for a lifetime. Many of them return again and again as their families grow, and it’s been an honor to document their stories through the years.
Vintage family portraits hold a meaning that goes far beyond the image itself—they are a connection to where we come from and the stories that shaped us. In 2012, my cousin Marlow gave me a box of old family photographs that had been sitting untouched on a closet shelf for over 30 years. Inside were incredible heirlooms, including my grandparents’ ketubah, each piece carrying history, memory, and identity. With the help of my elderly father and his cousin, we were able to put names to many of the faces, bringing those moments back to life. That experience deeply shaped how I see photography today—these aren’t just pictures, they are part of a family’s legacy, meant to be preserved, remembered, and passed down for generations.
let’s make creative magic
Evan has been inspired by the family member he never met!
Evan named his studio after Philip Guston, brother to his grandfather Isadore aka “Goldie”. Philip is known for his murals, incisive, cartoonish paintings, and drawings of everyday scenes to narrative political satire. He went to high school with Jackson Pollock and was instrumental in shaping art of the 20th Century.
Evan remembers in 1980 his mother showed him the memorial article written in the Los Angeles Times Calendar section. This seems to be when Evan had realized the extent of how influential Philip Guston was in the art world.
The family admired Philip greatly, and when Evan started his photography studio in 1990, he named it Evan Guston Photography as a tribute to Philip and his creative energy.
In 1998 a client of Evan’s contacted him early on a Sunday morning that there was a showing of Philip Guston’s work on display. The mural was painted between 1935 to 1936 by Philip Goldstein “Guston” and Reuben Kadish. The mural was about to be painted over when the curator at the City of Hope made known the significance of the mural. It had been restored between 1997–98. At the reopening, there were many other works of Philip Guston on display.
www.livingnewdeal.org/projects/city-hope-physical-growth-man-mural-duarte-ca/
Evan is known throughout the industry by his studio name, Evan Guston.
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