Rangefinder Magazine
April 2005

Click Here for printable version of this article.

Profile: John Woodward by Harvey Goldstein
Commercial Photography Is Not Just About Products

John Woodward’s early introduction to photography occurred while he was a junior in high school. He borrowed his father’s Polaroid 100 to photograph a 12-foot snow rabbit he had built in front of his Long Island home after a major snowstorm. This early self-assignment coupled with his school assignment of photographing the underclassmen for his high school yearbook (again with the Polaroid) may have been the impetus that jump-started his career.

In 1969 John became the contract photographer for the town of Oyster Bay, a small suburb of New York City with a population of one million people. He was given the “beauty” assignments, photographing all of the Parks and Recreation Department projects, the ocean and any other building project that promoted the beauty of that part of Long Island. The purpose of these assignments was to show the taxpayers where their money was being spent. Town officials would present slide shows of John’s work to various organizations, and displays of his work appeared in all of the public buildings and libraries.

Because he was a contract photographer and not an employee of the town, every display or presentation had the signage, “Photographs by John Woodward” attached to it. Success is not always about one’s artistic ability: It is about the public’s perception of that individual. With John’s images being promoted by the town government, he had credentials and credibility.

John’s formal education in photography began when he went to work for Van Camp Studios. With accounts such as Regent Sheffield Cutlery, Farberware, Tupperware, Volkswagen of America, Chris-Craft and Balentine Bangles, Mr. Van Camp quickly showed John that he had a lot to learn about photography.

These were the days of gelatin film and E4 chemistry. The studio could be working on as many as 15 different sets on any given day, using 4x5 and 8x10 view cameras. Jewelry was photographed without digital manipulation. The backgrounds were clay-based colored paper, and all typesetting was done using transfer type.

Layouts were created on tracing paper. The layouts were placed on top of the background paper and then placed on top of a bed of wax. This was then melted into aluminum foil trays. The photographer would carefully cut through the layout and the background paper in order to expose a tiny bit of the wax. Each ring or bracelet would be pressed into the wax until it stood straight up. The photographer would then climb up a ladder and look through the 8x10 view camera to be sure that everything was perfectly angled. If there were 24 bracelets on a page, the photographer might travel up and down that same ladder 100 times before everything was ready to be photographed.

Because each studio bay had its own project, if one wasn’t setting up a shot or building a set, sheets of bracketed test film would be processed to determine what color gels would be used and to correct the color because of the deviation in processing from batch to batch.

John kept his contract position with the town of Oyster Bay while working for Van Camp Studios. He was learning more about light and sun position and began to schedule his beauty location photographs based on his knowledge of the sun’s transit and solstice points. John states, “If you are going to do any environmental or architectural photography, it is important to invest the necessary time to understand how the sun’s positioning will affect your photographs.”

John’s displays in Oyster Bay and surrounding towns caught the attention of the technical director for Canon USA, who invited him to photograph the U.S. Tennis Open in Forest Hills, New York.
After John’s U.S. Open photographs had been noticed, he was invited to attend another tennis tournament, this time seated next to Jimmy Connors, the number one tennis player in the world at that time. After striking up a conversation, Connors asked John if he could borrow his camera.

With John’s camera in hand, the media turned the tables and photographed Connors. The photograph was carried nationwide with John and Jimmy Connors sitting together. As John likes to point out, perception and credentials are everything. That one photo-op generated a multitude of telephone calls and more importantly, a lot of new business contacts. The perception was that if John Woodward is a good enough photographer for Jimmy Connors, he must be good enough for us. This led to assignments with dozens of advertising firms, World Team Tennis and the New York Yankees.

Although acts of kindness opened many doors of opportunities to John, it was up to him to prove himself. His average corporate client has been with him for 20 years. He has worked for Viacom, Paramount, Hyatt, Marriott, Cunnard Shipping, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the New York Yankees, Manufacturers Hanover, all of the major television networks and most major sporting teams and events.

In addition, John has worked with many rock stars as well as prominent actors, actresses and models. He has worked with several presidents, first ladies, prime ministers, the Pope and the Dalai Lama.

John’s definition of a commercial photographer is that of a “problem solver.” He cites the occasion of a Hall of Fame Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria. There were to be approximately 400 Hall of Fame athletes at this dinner for 2000 of New York’s most affluent corporate sponsors and guests. Generally, John’s photography centers on the speeches at the podium and small groups of people. While he was working at this event a few years ago, he was asked to photograph all of the athletes together. Fortunately, John is always prepared. John emphasizes that a good photographer should never go out on an assignment without a full complement of lenses and lights. One never knows when a photograph not on the original assignment list will be requested at the event.

John photographs an equal balance of people and products. The perception that commercial photographers only photograph objects is erroneous. John is a corporate event specialist who is hired for his ability to determine the needs at a particular venue. John has been a corporate sponsor’s photographer at the U.S. Tennis Open for three decades.

A sponsor’s goals generally include recording the event, showing their corporate presence at every opportunity and entertaining their most important clients. John’s responsibilities at these events include: good images of all signage alone and with a viewing public; photographs of the corporate guests getting instruction from the professionals and corporate-sponsored tennis clinics, which take place before the tournament begins; photographs of the guests with celebrities and officers of the corporation in the hospitality suite during meals as well as the after-event parties; photographic coverage of all off-site parties; and photographs of the professionals. (This will include the pre-tournament field of 256 singles players. Add to this the 256 for the main tournament, those participating in the men’s doubles, the women’s doubles, mixed doubles, men’s 35 and over singles and doubles, women’s 35 and over singles and doubles, Grand Masters singles and doubles and the Junior U.S. Open Tournament, which consists of three groups: 16 and under, 12 and under and 10 and under.)

In photographing an event such as this, you have to be sure you have a good photograph of everyone. Your client may be the sponsor of the women’s singles tournament, but your client does not know which player or players their special guests may be interested in. Their special guests may want an obscure player who is coming off the junior tournament or an older player who has been a hero to them for many years. John’s job is to make sure that his client never has to say “no” to their special guests.

John has worked for the Hyatt and Marriott Hotels during his career. Traveling around the country for hotels may sound intriguing, but it can be tedious. Because it is important that the photographer not affect the flow of the hotel, most of the work involving people such as the couple and the waiter in a restaurant actually occurs at two or three in the morning.

When John photographed food for the New York Marriott Marquis, he built five sets. The Marriott has five restaurants, room service and convention services; on the average, there will be 70 photographs of just the entrées. While John is working within Studio A, the Executive Chef is setting up Studio B, and crews are removing food from the other studios. Because this food is for sale, it cannot be “doctored” in any way.

Food photographs are not just for the menu. The Executive Chef will change the menu approximately three times per year. The purpose of much of John’s food photography is to allow a visual reference in the plating area within the kitchen as a reference photo of how the plate should look when it goes out to the client.

When John photographs a resort property, he has to also portray all of the available services. He will illustrate the golf course, with and without players. Tennis courts, horseback riding, volleyball, aerobics and the pool areas must also be recorded, as well as headshots for the management team and other designated personnel.

As a property photographer, John is also responsible for photographing events. The Marriott Marquis, with its proximity to the theater district, has a great number of before and after parties in conjunction with the opening or closing of a Broadway show. Quite often, these are the “grip and grin” photographs that are the bread and butter of most photographers’ existence.

Every image will not be a Rembrandt, nor will every opportunity be to photograph the Taj Mahal. The function of a commercial photographer is to record what is. A commercial photographer’s work is broken into two segments. The first segment involves creating a memory—such as three executives photographed with a celebrity.

The second segment is the one that allows the photographer to illustrate and show people something they have never seen before. An example of this would be a particular angle on an elevator shaft that incorporates a wide-angle lens and perfect lighting.

John breaks his work into two categories. First is events, where he does not want to be involved after making the exposure, and the second is projects, where he finishes the entire job in-house.

John’s online lab is Printroom.com. This allows all of the attendees at an event to view and order photographs online.

His start-to-finish projects include client-commissioned work and portfolios. He retouches and manipulates using Photoshop CS and Corel PhotoPaint, and he uses Leaf Capture for RAW file image processing. John uses Mamiya 645AFD cameras and Mamiya lenses ranging from the 55–
110mm zoom to the 300mm lens. He uses the Leaf Valeo WiFi digital magazine and Profoto and Lumedyne strobes. He also uses a Sekonic 558 meter with PocketWizard MultiMax radio slaves.

Finished artwork is output on Niagara II equipped Epson printers using MediaStreet.com inks and paper. John mats and frames these pieces using Excel products. For a sampling of John’s finished work, visit www.john woodwardphotography.com/.

The diversity of John’s photography makes him look forward to going to work every morning. On any given day he may be doing food photography, a model’s portfolio or a theatrical head-shot, manipulating an image on his computer, a sunrise on a beach for a travel magazine or in an airplane doing aerial photography. “If you only do one type of photography, eventually you will change a wonderful opportunity into a job.”

John has a passion for what he does. His inspiration comes from never being able to learn enough about this art form and loving all the new tools and techniques that arrive on a daily basis. “Digital is a wonderful new playground and represents the biggest change in photography since color. It changes everything. It changes how we look at our photography, how we capture our images and how we deliver our finished products. The learning curve, although sometimes daunting, is equally invigorating.

My nature is to dig into something until I understand how it works. The ‘how it works’ fixation helped me in my own photography and as an instructor. I can think of no other profession which allows us to bring nothing but happiness to other people’s lives just by doing our job in a timely fashion.”

Harvey Goldstein from Branford, Connecticut, has been in the photographic industry for more than 30 years. He is a former studio owner and presently edits numerous association newsletters and magazines, as well as being a freelance writer.