Words And Images By John

John D is a freelance writer and photographer.

Client List/Credits Include:

Dazed and Confused Magazine          The Austin American Statesman
Stop Smiling Magazine                      The Austin Chronicle
The Second Pass                              American Way Magazine (American Airlines)
Book Forum                                      Venice Magazine
Popmatters.com                                Dallas Modern Luxury
Michael Spek Design                         Olivia Restaurant
Art and Artisans                                Miracle House Foundation
Skyonic Corporation                           Vidal Sassoon

I was born in Manchester, England. After leaving school, I worked at a photography lab in which landmark album covers for local artists such as The Smiths, Morrissey, and The Stone Roses, were produced. Manchester, with its vibrant youth culture and its introspective creative energy, continues to inform much of what I do.

At twenty-one, I moved to Los Angeles. Amongst other things, I photographed actor’s headshots and model portfolios, processing many of the final prints in a time honored tradition, i.e. inhaling chemical fumes in a tiny, cramped apartment bathroom. LA may be renowned for its cult of youth rather than for its culture, yet during my time there I found much to admire in the creative community. I don’t buy into the easy notions of those who denigrate the superficiality of the left coast’s major city. For a long time Los Angeles felt like the future to me, and in many ways it still does.

In spite of which, in 2001 I moved to New York City. I stopped taking photographs and instead wrote freelance articles, worked on a novel. I found myself moving amongst aspiring theatre actors and writers, and lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn. To co-opt a phrase of Norman Mailer’s, New York City struck me as a great ‘bitch-goddess’: you’d better have a good reason for being there, for there are easier places to live. Yet, walking the streets in my day-to-day, I rubbed shoulders with the greatest confluence of novelists and journalists of any neighborhood in the country. For most of the seven years I lived there, New York was all it was supposed to be.

In 2008 I shifted most of my operations to Austin, Texas and invested in new digital photography equipment. Today, at a time when print and online media outlets are in flux, and the economy is in freefall, I recognize that an ability to draw strong sentences together and compose bold visual images is an increasingly valuable commodity. In the world of print/online media, where words and images are twin life bloods, I produce both.

I am available for travel, and frequently spend time in LA and NYC. Beyond the work shown here, I am open to – and have previously photographed – a broad range of work that includes personal and commercial portraiture. Rates available upon request.

John D 2010