COMPELLING VISUAL STORYTELLING

A Los Angeles based photographer of more than 15 years John has a refined eye for composition and the ability to bring the best out in people creating dynamic, authentic and relatable moments in his pictures

My goal is pretty simple: Make the most compelling and beautiful pictures I can while keeping bird dog focus on authenticity.

As the pieces come together I’m like a kid on Christmas morning.

I am forever pursuing something lasting, something above and beyond… Timeless and ineffable. Beauty, power, and grace are keywords for me.

I truly enjoy the creative collaboration involved in making great pictures, engaging and connecting with people, I love making imagery that grabs viewers and allows a glimpse into the world of the subject, revealing the stories that are always behind them. I hope to stimulate curiosity, pique excitement, inspire trains of thought.

A very smart man once said, beauty is truth, truth is beauty. I love this! 

I’m obsessed with wild places, moved to engage with the elements whenever I’m not working. Climbing, surfing, skiing, mountain biking, whatever! When I was a lad I dreamt of being a great mountain climber, I wanted to test my metal and search my soul in high and dangerous places, It slowly dawned on me that I wasn’t really wired for that level of heroics and that there were much less traumatic ways to experience the power and beauty of the natural world.

I'm much too immersed in my creative work and in spending time with my amazing wife and two beautiful daughters anyway.

What a gift!

My career stared as photo assistant in San Francisco after finishing art school and eventually found myself traveling the country and the globe working for some genuine photographic legends.

Working on heavy hitting advertising jobs, celebrity portraiture and month long automotive shoots. I could not have dreamt of better training.

There were many remarkable experiences, and opportunities to meet and work with some truly amazing people. A few things I will never forget:

Getting catapulted off the pitching deck of an aircraft carrier in ridiculously violent turbulence.

A day spent in a hot and cramped Universal back lot studio with Frank Sinatra… I’ve shaken hands with the man!

Being spied through binoculars by a rooftop secret service sniper while pulling focus on a project with Al Gore

An incredible month spent filming in a remote high corner of the Himalaya.

Sweeping an entire beach clear of footprints with a hand broom. It took all day.

Chatting with Joni Mitchel and noodling on one of John Lennon’s guitars.

Holding the preserved brain of a Minnesota nun in my hands. That was weird!

Getting publicly blasted as a nube by one of biggest names in Chicago advertising…. A humbling experience to be sure!

Crouching (in a very subservient way) so close to a 400lb tiger that I could feel the humidity of her warm, meat-perfumed breath on my face.

What does any of this have to do with anything? These experiences, and many more like them have influenced who I am, stimulated my instinct for remarkable pictures and tempered my creative take on the world. They’ve offered incredible insight into creative collaboration with diverse groups of people, problem solving and how to produce great imagery and more than a little about gratitude and humility.

It’s a big broad world… I'd like to do my tiny part, as a photographer, to help bring people together, shine light on what others are up to and help us all to get to know each other however small the step

SELECTED CLIENT LIST

GM Master Card Bauer Pottery

UCLA Medical Center Fjall Sportsware

Coca Cola Macy's Department Stores

Marlboro Adventure Nordic Designs

Frito Lay Anheuser Busch

Hind Sportswear Stolpman Vineyards

Sony Pictures Chew Racing

Subaru Sapporo Breweries

Hyudai Claremont Lincoln University

LECTURE / TEACH

Art Center College of Design                    Pasadena, Ca.

Los Angeles Center for Photography        Los Angeles, Ca.

Alberta College of Art and Design            Calgary, Canada