About

My love of photography is closely paired to my love of travel, so it seems fitting that some of my favorite images come from the faraway places where I travel and people I encounter in my job as a Program Officer for Mercy Corps.

When I was in high school, my father, himself an avid black & white photographer, built a darkroom for me, and from there I got my first taste of that wondrous experience of watching images appear on paper as it lay in developer. I continued to photograph through school, but it wasn’t until my first trips overseas in my early twenties that I found inspiration. Nothing can express the beauty and complexity of the world as well as photography.

Although I still enjoy shooting with film, I have been using a digital camera when traveling overseas. The capacity and convenience of a digital SLR is great when traveling in difficult environments, and I can always use the LCD to entice a few more smiles from a skeptical crowd.

My work with Mercy Corps has taken me to some of the most amazing places on earth. In addition to frequent trips to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, I have responded to two of the world’s largest disasters, the 2004 South Asian tsunami and the 2005 Pakistan earthquake. Shooting photos in both of these disasters challenged me to express the enormity of the destruction and its effect on the survivors, while at the same time telling their stories of dignity and survival.

John's Gearbox

Nikkormat FT
Nikon D2X
Nikon FG
In the field:
Nikon D70s with a Nikon SpeedLight SB-800