JOHN FORD

I have had the usual background for photography. I went to a fancy school and spent several decades doing photography in Los Angeles, both as an assistant and a photographer. Since my retirement I have specialized in aviation photography. My work has evolved from photography of airplanes in their natural habitat, in the air to mostly graphic images on the ground. I have been asked “what is my inspiration for that change”.

Years ago, after an airshow I was looking at my work and others as well who had been with me and I noticed that pretty much everyone’s photos looked the same, and why not. We are all doing the same thing, the same way at the some time with similar equipment. If you are in a group, no matter what the size 10-10,000 and a plane flies by and we all lift our multi thousands of dollar cameras and press the trigger and the motor rips off20 or so images why would your images look different from anyone else’s?

That observation got me to thinking, so how could I separate my images from everyone else’s images? There was an assignment at school of shooting 36 different images of something simple, like a parking meter. The first half dozen are easy the next 30 make you think. So with that in mind, I started looking at the aircraft in front of me in a different way and I dissected the aircraft into its major and then eventually minor elements. Look at what these shapes do when isolated from the rest of the aircraft. How does this element affect the composition of the image. Look, there isa splash of color, ooh that's cool. Then I started playing around in photoshop to enhance the look of the image. I started clicking buttons and sliding sliders I had never used before and some times the result was very cool. In a way this has freed me up, this evolution means I don’t have the constraints of doing what is expected. The really big change I think, is my mind set. I’m trying to create art and not record shots. Because of this change in thinking I’m getting pleasure and satisfaction from the experience with a dash of fun and excitement tossed in as well.

I hope you enjoy my work and that you will get inspiration from these images.