Evan Amos


Evan Amos is a video gaming photographer of high-quality stock photography of video game consoles, which he releases into the public domain. Known for contributing these images to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, Amos is working on The Vanamo Online Game Museum, a free digital archive of video game hardware. As of 2018, Amos resides in Brooklyn, New York City.

Work

Being "annoyed" at the poor quality of images of video game consoles on Wikipedia, Amos decided to document these systems before they were "forgotten in time." Starting in 2010 with Nintendo's Wii console, which he happened to own, Amos soon "felt addicted" and started a list of every console he could think of. After putting up an ad on Craigslist, Amos came into contact with a collector in Huntington, Long Island, where he was able to photograph a collection of various consoles starting with those from Sega and Atari. He has expressed "surprise" at the increasing popularity of his freely licensed photos among print, television, Internet, and other media – though he is still rarely credited for them.
After purchasing and photographing video game consoles, Amos donates them to the New York University Game Center and the National Museum of Play, where he is allowed to access them at any time if he needs to re-shoot them.
Amos has also taken and added pictures of fast food items and candy onto Wikipedia, noting that he is a "horrible eater".

Projects

In 2013, Amos raised through a Kickstarter campaign to purchase more hardware. His goal is to build the Vanamo Online Game Museum, an online archive of video game hardware in order to preserve the history of video games. In addition to photographs, the Vanamo Online Game Museum is intended to include an extensive history of each console and its development.
On November 6, 2018, Amos released a book published by No Starch Press, titled The Game Console: A Photographic History from Atari To Xbox, in which he showcases various video game consoles, their hardware, and some of their history throughout the generations.

Selected works