Evan Murphy's work is more than an artistic experience. Combining surrealism and nostalgia, the young Las Vegas-born creative evokes pure emotion. Breaking the mundanity of traditional photography, Evan's pieces contain visuals pulled directly from a dream-like world that exists only within the bounds of his own mind. Scenes of blazing fires, ominous cityscapes, and enchanting beaches are only a portion of a portfolio that could either be described as pulled from a fairytale or a fever dream.

Turncoat got ahold of Evan to learn more about his life and creative process.

What is your origin story?

I was born and raised in Las Vegas; ever since I can remember, my parents would get my twin brother and I cameras, and they always pushed us to be creative. We just fell in love with it. We grew up making movies, doing photoshoots, and creating stuff with our friends. It grew into this passion that both of us had for visual art, which has guided us throughout our entire life.

I am completely self taught. I never took any photography or editing classes. I remember when I first got Instagram, I was obsessed with having an aesthetic feed. I was on VSCO cam and all of that. One of the first things I did when I got a professional camera was downloading the VSCO/Lightroom presets. They were this amazing set that had a classic film vibe to them that I loved, so I started by tweaking presets to my liking until I developed my own style.

What influences your incredibly detailed and surreal style?

I always had this obsession. While shooting in Las Vegas, I didn't want people to know it was shot in Vegas. I wanted it to look as if it was this dream world that only exists in my head, and I wanted to display my emotions of loneliness, my pursuit of love and happiness. Photography, for me, is almost a display of past emotion, feeling, life events, all documented into a picture.

What is your creative process?

I really started advancing in photography by finding stuff I really liked and decomposing that image, and trying to recreate it. It makes really good images less intimidating because you are breaking down every aspect of it, you'll never get the same version of something you are trying to replicate, but it helps you create what you also like.

Do you have a favorite shoot so far?

I would say, I did a shoot with my friends where I had them in ski masks and made them look like spring breakers on the run. It was so creative and fun to explore the aspect of posting a set of photos and making it seem like a storyline or stills from a movie. I love that stuff. That was one of my favorite photoshoots.

What was shooting with Angus Cloud like?

Angus was like a breath of fresh air; he was so real. It was very full circle. I had been obsessed with Euphoria forever and got the opportunity to shoot Angus. I drove 10 hours from Reno to Los Angeles in the middle of midterms to do it; I'm so happy I did it.

What can we expect from you in the near future?

In 2017 I created this online photographic series called I.D. I am re-doing the series now:

"Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization."
"Telling a story, sending a message, and speaking your mind, all without using words. This is what I believe makes photography a beautiful concept. My biggest motivation for photography was using it as a technique to demonstrate my ideas and my voice. I.D. was my way of doing this, using photography to tell a story and display a powerful message within each detail of the images. I.D. obviously stands for identification, however, with my images, I give identity a new meaning. My goal for the project was to show the beauty of unity, equality, and self-discovery. The backbone of the message is finding one's true identity, discovering yourself, however, never defining oneself or anyone based on race, religion, background, heritage, etc. Starting this project, I was hesitant because of how bold this statement is, as well as my ideas and messages behind the photos. However, I quickly got over this, when remembering the importance of speaking one's mind, in any way you can.
We must understand we are all born human, we are all born equal, no matter our race, religion, background, creed, heritage, or sexual orientation, we are one. Despite life pressures, or opinions of others, we must emerge into our true identity. Art is a wonderful way to empower a voice and help shape society. I believe now more than ever we must speak our minds, we must fight for what we believe in, in any way possible. For me, my voice lies behind photography."