|
|
[ November 15, 1999 ] Where you've seen his work: Over the course of the past several years, John's photos have graced the pages of magazines such as Newsweek, Glue and Creem.  In addition to doing work for companies such as Levis, Pepsi and Harrah's Casinos, John has shot album covers for bands like Porno For Pyros, Motley Crue, Stone Temple Pilots, Monster Magnet and God Lives Underwater. John also helmed the Stone Temple Pilots video for "Big Bang Baby."
Why he chose photography:"As a kid growing up in south Florida, I became interested in drawing because I was a big fan of comic book artists like Jack Kirby and Jim Steranko. Their work always seemed so cosmic and ambitious. Years later, while attending college, I switched my major from drawing to photography after discovering the work of Diane Arbus. She made these haunting images that stuck in my mind. It was obvious that she wasn't walking up to people on the street and giving them $5 so that they'd let her photograph them. She went through a long process of getting to know people and getting them to trust her and I found that interesting. I really got into studying the little details of her photographs." How he got started: "After school, I moved to New York and assisted a lot of people. In 1990, I moved to Los Angeles and discovered Photoshop. Prior to that, I had been doing a lot of laborious darkroom-type stuff and digital technology allowed me to be more ambitious. Unfortunately, I was dead broke at the time and couldn't afford any of the necessary tools. I was lucky enough to meet a guy whose wife made toddler clothing. He gave me access to his computer in exchange for shooting the company catalogue. Eventually, I started getting a lot of work, mostly in the music business. My first client was the now-defunct Creem magazine, which led to album cover work."  View on current trends:"I like photos that you go back to time and time again, pictures where you always find something new. All the 'artificial realism' stuff that people are doing now just bums me out. It looks like a snapshot, but is actually heavily set up. It just doesn't move me. I like a certain amount of showmanship and color and flair in photographs. I like highly-stylicized photographs that have a lot of thought put into them. You look at those 'artificial realism' photos once and there's nothing else to it." Weird career moment: "I was doing an album shoot for Motley Crue and it had a 'pig theme.' We did a whole day of shooting pigs, first live ones, then dead pig heads. The band wanted the inside fold-out to be them in a mud pit surrounded by TV sets and pig heads on stakes (laughs). We were shooting at Smashbox, and on that same night they were having a benefit for a Jewish organization. So here we were in the same building with this organization shooting pigs. The people at Smashbox were worried that they would think there was some kind of nazi photo shoot going on." 
Unforgettable advice:"At the time of the Motley Crue shoot, I told drummer Tommy Lee that I was contemplating marriage and asked him for advice. He had just gotten back with Pamela Anderson and said, 'Dude, read Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus- it's a great book (laughs).'" Next up: "I really want to get more into the film business, making short films with a digital video camera and then editing on computer."
What his pictures say about him: - Contributed by Michael Moses |
