John Emrys

The Philosophy Of Photography


Copyright © John Emrys

At an impressionable age when the Apollo mission made its historic lunar landing, John Emrys’ first career choice was bio- genetics. Balking at the concept of one plus two equaled three, Emrys kept seeing the answer as a pleasing shape. His love for physics & chemistry prevailed upon a right- brained streak, leading to a discovery of the nature of light & how it plays on everything.

Mostly self-taught [leaving others blameless for his level of accomplishment], Emrys has been heavily influenced by the philosophy of photography as given through the life works of Richard Avedon, Paul Caponigro, Helmut Newton & Albert Watson.

John has spent the past twenty years generating commercial photography for such clients as Clinique, ScotiaBank, The Wool Bureau of Canada, Labatt’s, H20 Cosmetics USA, Playboy Lingerie & numerous editorial magazines. He has recently produced a fifth fine-art project for the distinguished Canadian artist, Michael Snow. John has won several CAPIC, Nikon, Profoto and PDN Gold & Silver awards, many of them for his ‘Body for Soul Lingerie’ LA campaigns & several self-promotional series.

His decision to side-step commercial shooting for a year led to the Humber Media Copywriting Program, which he attended full-time. While much delight was found in writing for advertising, Emrys discovered that as a career path it was an absurd choice [thankyou Trevor Pedlar, for saying so]. A natural sense of art direction & design [nourished from years of working alongside creative directors & editors] turned out to be what the Grail really represented & for that, Emrys turned to a long-lived affair with carpentry.

So, after many years of arranging things in rectangles, Emrys recently formally split his life career towards, well, building the rectangles. He’s been quoted as saying, “...it can be an interesting day on set when clients notice you've absently packed a hammer in the lighting kit.”

John loves hiking through rain forests in lousy weather, traditional film, pomegranates & Spanish sheep's cheese, although he admits the latter two in combination often produce nasty hiccups. He believes in the pure difference between perception & perspective, and creating his imagery through metaphor.

Jeff Boxer, 2007

Website: www.iconophile-ltd.com


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