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John Running - Photographer
By Roo Du Jardin
John Running views his portrait work as an exchange between himself and his subjects. He believes if he works well, he gives something in return. "I leave a part of me there, exposed and open. So it becomes a trade: my taking your image but offering something in return." I first met John Running on an Indian reservation called Fort Hall, a few kilometers outside Pocatello, Idaho, U.S.A.. He was conspicuous by the number of Nikons dangling from his body, also his contortions to find the shot. I knew immediately that this man meant business. John Running works from his studio in Flagstaff, Arizona as a professional photographer and film maker. Educated at Northern Arizona University and holding a degree in Anthropology, he first used photography as a documentary tool. It is at this point where self education and the eventual evolution to full time photography came about.
John has lived in Flagstaff for most of his life and the love of his state is obvious when talking to him and looking at his pictures. "The San Francisco Peaks, just north of Flagstaff, are sacred to the Navajo and Hopi Indians who live nearby. They can be seen for hundreds of miles, and I always look for them when I return home from a trip - whether I've been away for a day or a month. Once I see them, I know I'm home. "The various cultures of the Southwest also have a special interest and attraction for me. The culture here is not so homogeneous as in the rest of the United States. Native American groups and Chicanos have kept much of their cultural identity and language. This provides a really interesting context in which to work. In just a few hours, I can travel to and photograph people very different from me. I have a great deal to learn from the cultures around me." John prefers the freedom of being able to move in and out of Arizona as he likes. He maintains contact with clients by email and phone, most of whom are located in major centers such as New York, San Francisco and Chicago. He maintains a stock library that offers subjects from Agriculture to Zoology. Besides his still photography, which appears in books, magazines calendars, John also produces educational films and documentaries. His audio-visual presentations cover subjects such as human behavior and interaction, Spanish and Indian culture in the United States, geology, weather and evolution. John has traveled beyond the Southwest on projects in the Galapagos Islands, Peru, Ecuador, the West Indies and Baja California. Some photographs presented here come from those travels. He has documented the daily lives of two fishing families, one on an island in the Sea of Cortez, the other in Trinidad - for a book entitled "Children of the Sea." John works mainly with 35mm camera gear and colour. The reason is purely commercial as publications prefer this format. All his favourite images printed for himself are on black and white media. He describes himself as a people photographer, producing a distinctive style that shows rapport and human connection between camera and subject. "You can see that I get off on photographing people in a very direct look-at-the-camera way. Some editors really object and I think I probably loose many sales because of that. But these are the kind of pictures I want to make and I really enjoy watching peoples eyes, and making this kind of portrait. Some people call it confrontation photography. In a way it is a confrontation, people know that I'm taking their picture but I see a difference in that. Most confrontation photography that I see is very different, the person being photographed more often than not looks hostile to me. I think there is a difference in my work in that the people I photograph don't look hostile. We are relating and there is something good going on between us, an exchange if you like. "I've had people ask me about taking pictures and taking something away from the person. I really don't agree with that. If the photographer does his job really well, when he's taking pictures he's going to leave something behind also. So there is an exchange going on and that is the thing I really like to get at with my photographs of people, and perhaps this makes them a little different." |
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