Photographs by Mike Evangelist, courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society Press
In late 2013, arts and culture critic Andy Sturdevant stumbled upon the work of little-known photographer Mike Evangelist while perusing the Facebook page Old Minneapolis. Though the page was entirely dedicated to showcasing vintage photos of the city’s former self, for Sturdevant, Evangelist’s photos were patently different.
A level above in composition and execution, Evangelist’s work was also not retreading material previously published somewhere else. Sturdevant tracked down Evangelist, who’d since become a successful marketing exec in the high-tech sector, to discover the origin of the photos. He learned that the images were shot 40 years earlier by the then-17-year-old when he took the bus into downtown Minneapolis from the northern suburbs to work at the post office. Awestruck by the ferocity of a city alive, Evangelist turned his lens on all of it, never suspecting that nearly a half century later his collection of found Minneapolis moments, people, and places would be a hardbound resident on Minneapolis bookstore shelves. $29.95, November 2015, Minnesota Historical Society Press
