First Steps:
I first stepped behind the lens of a camera when I was 10. My father bought me a small thumb wind 110 camera to take photos while we were on a family trip to St. Louis. He was a little upset when I burned through 2 rolls of film in the same day. I guess it would have been an logical assumption to see that I was destine to become a professional photographer.
Currently I live & work in Chicago. I moved to Chicago in June of 1996 to attend Columbia. I was originally enrolling to become a radio DJ after I decided that my previous majors, psychology, business management & journalism weren't really for me. Which leads me to highly recommend junior colleges to those of you who are undeclared majors.
I grew up just outside of Chicago. About 40 miles to the southwest in the City of Joliet. This is where my love for photography started and has been the inspiration or starting point for some of my personal work.
Joliet is one of those big/small towns. With over 100,000 people and stretching almost 10 miles east to west. Yet you're always surprised that when you meet someone from there they know somebody you know. This down home feeling helped me ease up to strangers while photographing street scenes as well as helping out on some of my first photo assignments for the Joliet Herald. The town's background helped shape some of my work. With it's gritty train tracks, empty factories mixed with glitzy river boats & retro looking street lights, plus wide open farm fields just west of town. I could bring out the best of color or black & white.
The High School Paper:
The next time I had used a camera was about 5 years later, when I was taking pictures in high school for the school paper & year book. One day in our journalism class in school the teacher let use know that beside sports writers, which was what everyone wanted to be (I went to an all boys private school that was heavy on the sports) that the paper also needed photographers. A guidance consoler named Pat Yeager, gave me a hand full of cheap black & white film & a SLR Pentax from the 1970's, along with a crash course on how to expose film. After returning a few day later with candid shots of classmates and school activities, she really liked what she had seen and gave me more film, a better camera and encouraged me to shoot more.
My senior year I put down the camera & returned to being in the photos. Not having my own camera it was a few years until I would get back behind the lens again.
College:
I transferred to Columbia College in the spring of 1996. I had intended to major in radio when I put my transfer papers in to Columbia in the fall of 95, but a used Canon AE-1 I bought for $60 and a elective photo class I took at the junior college, opened doors that I never knew existed. Before long I was in classes being taught by teachers who had achieved world recognition with awards such as the Pulitzer Prize, or worked for companies like the Chicago Tribune or Playboy magazine.
Professional:
If Joliet helped me discover photography, then Chicago helped me perfect it. With a school filled with actors, dancers & models as well as a city filled with an assortment of characters it's almost impossible to take a picture without someone wanting to step in front of your lens. This helped me launch my career in studio photography. Buying studio strobes and stands with money from a Christmas bonus from my temp job at the time. I started taking pictures of friends, family & girlfriends. Along with doing head shots & model's portfolios on the cheap for people I knew.
Since then, my love for taking pictures has led me from taking snap shots to working on a serious documentary project, fashion & studio photography, sidelines at sporting events to shooting celebrities & events for groups like NASA & De Paul University.
Feel free to check out every aspect of my work even if you're only interested in one area. Being a good photographer transcends titles and labels. Being a good wedding photographer doesn't mean you'll be a good sports photographer or product photographer. But above all other things photography is about light and the subject in the light. These two elements, although different are the core of every photo ever taken.
Cheers,
Vincent D. Johnson