Rangefinder Magazine
October 2005

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Profile: John Isaac by Harvey Goldstein
Kashmir

John Isaac discovered his love affair with photography over 30 years ago when, as a young man in his 20s working in a clerical staff at the United Nations, he received a camera as a Christmas gift from his older brother. While John was working as a darkroom technician at the United Nations Photo Lab, he entered many photo contests; in 1978 he received a gold medal from Photokina. His career as a photographer began as a result of this award when the photography department sent him to the Middle East to cover the conflict between Israel and Lebanon. This love affair with photography has led him around the world many times and has given him the opportunity to photograph thousands of people, animals and places. Originally from Southern India with a Bachelor of Science in Zoology from Madras University, John did not initially realize the impact his photographs would have on others.

John had been labeled a photojournalist, a label he does not like. He considers himself a “street photographer”; he photographs whatever is interesting to him. In essence, he photographs life.

John has photographed some of the 20th century’s more graphic and gruesome events: The United Nations sent him to Sarajevo to photograph the war in Bosnia. Upon his return to the United States, he was assigned to cover the ethnic violence in Rwanda. Photographing these world events took their toll on John’s health, and he almost quit photographing. During his period of recuperation, he saw
the beauty of nature in a sunflower and a butterfly. These were the first photographs he had taken in over four months.

John’s father died when John was very young. His mother raised him to have a universal faith and an understanding of all human beings as equal. She taught him about human dignity and why it is important. During his days as a photojournalist, the dignity of his subjects was very important to him. There were many occasions when John would not take a photograph if he thought it would infringe on that individual’s dignity.

As a photographer of nature, John has studied and learned from his subjects. Birds have taught him patience and how to understand and follow the cycle of life and its movements. This goes along with John’s interest in Buddhism, Zen, Hinduism and Sufism, which all show how one can attain peace in different ways.

With his background and interest in Eastern philosophy, John was drawn to the Olympus lenses. The name for Olympus lenses is “Zuiko,” which means “light of the gods” in Japanese. When Olympus developed their new lenses for digital capture, they did not just modify the existing film lenses, the company began at square one and developed an entirely new set of lenses, which appealed to John.

John’s preference is for a long focal length lenses. The E-1 system, which he uses today, has a 50–200mm lens, which is equivalent to a 100–400mm focal length in the 35mm film format. He also uses the 300mm f/2.8 (600mm equivalent) and the 150mm f/2 (300mm equivalent). John uses these new lenses when he is in the wild photograph wildlife.

John was reluctant to enter the world of digital capture after more than 30 years of photographing with film because he was afraid he would not easily grasp the computer technology. He conquered his fears by spending more than six hours a day in front of his computer, learning something new every day. John makes it clear that he is not a computer guru, but he is able to photograph and download the images and make corrections. More importantly, he takes great pride in his printing skills. This talent goes back to his days of darkroom technical work he did throughout his career at the United Nations.

John points out that the most important piece of equipment for a digital photographer is the printer. John likes to be involved in the whole process from capturing the image to printing the finished photograph that people will see and touch. He cut his digital teeth with Epson printers and continues to be an Epson user. He began with their 800 and 1270 series and now uses their Stylus 2200 and 7600 printers. John touts the virtues of digital printing: “What I produce today from my Epson 2200 and the 7600 is far superior to the prints I used to make in the darkroom. With the prints being archival, it is even more desirable to be a digital photographer.” Most recently he has been working with Epson R2400.

Photography is a way of life for John. It has taught him compassion and to appreciate and respect beauty. “The most humbling experience one gets from photography is that no matter how great you are, you can never capture the beauty that you see completely with your photography. It makes you understand that there is a greater power that controls all of what we see and experience.”

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.

Notes from the photographer: The Kashmir work will be my next book. I am in the process of getting the dummy done. This is my best work and all done with the Olympus E-1 5-megapixel camera. I want to tell your readers not to worry about megapixels. Some of the images you see here were increased in size by working in Photoshop and increasing the dimensions in 10 percent increments. I work only with Epson printers—the 7600, 2200 and new 2400—and their wonderful Velvet paper. I use the Olympus E-1 and EVOLT E-300 digital cameras. I use Lexar media cards and Apple computers. I took my G-4 laptop to Kashmir and to the glaciers on muleback and carried two sets of batteries so that I could download images up in the mountains. All of my camera bags are LowePro. Rangefinder is the first magazine to see my Kashmir work. Your magazine has very good reproduction and you always give my work nice play. As you know, I turned 62 and am enjoying my new career (after 30 years with the UN) much more than before. Recently I taught at the Maine Photographic Workshops and am doing a two-day workshop at RIT in October.