John S. Brown

My interest in photography became serious in high school (Pampa, Texas) with the valuable instruction of my math teacher, a former professional photographer.

In the ensuing years I have continued darkroom work while also adopting digital capabilities and printing with pigment inks. My formal study of photography includes postgraduate fine art studies at SUNY Purchase and UC Berkeley, and photography seminars under Vincent Versace, Jim Di Vitale, and Greg Gorman.

When people ask the kind of photography I specialize in, I tell them I photograph what interests me. With this interest comes plenty of serendipity: while taking pictures (surreptitiously I thought) of a proposal-in-progress at the Venice Beach pier several years ago, the young man walked toward me. Thinking I was about to be reprimanded, I was happily surprised when he asked if I would mind staying around for ten minutes more to take more pictures as a plane was to fly by with his proposal in Portuguese on a banner. This led to a new friendship and the honor of attending the wedding of our new Polish doctor friend (by way of Australia) and his bride (a lawyer) in Olinda, Brazil.