Chicago-based photographer Jeffery C. Johnson’s photography has been prominently featured on the WGN-TV News, ABC-TV’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, BBC Travel.com, CNN Travel.com, Chicago Reader, Chicagoist, Gapers Block, and at ChicagoPublicRadio.com.
Johnson has worked as a dedicated photographer for the Scottish pop band Aberfeldy, captured the scene at the capitol building in Springfield, Illinois in 2007 when then Senator Barack Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States. He also exclusively followed the Four Star Anarchist Organization during the Anti-NATO protests in Chicago in 2012.
Johnson has primarily photographed across the United States, but says his favorite subject has always been Chicago. Johnson grew up there and both his grandfather & father were photojournalists in Chicago. “And, of course”, he says on his website, “because the city is amazingly energetic, beautiful and bewitching, rough and raw, full of history, mystery, and punch. While I would have loved to photograph Churchill, I was given Blagojevich; but a photographer can only capture those within their time. I enjoy taking pieces and putting them together to represent a whole – whether it’s a city, a specific place, an event, or a person. I feel I am making portraits of whatever I photograph”.
We Shared this Time is a self-published collection of photos from Johnson’s work that spans different themes across his broader collection of reportage style photography. Whether it is a street image of a particular location, specific event being covered, or lucky happenstance – the direct style of Johnson’s work makes you feel like you were there. The unpretentious nature of some of his portraits transcend straight reportage, and speak to larger issues like gun violence, celebrity, and poverty. We see a teenager standing up in a crowd of people, pantomiming holding a rifle and taking aim. We see street musicians playing for tips in downtown Chicago, contrasted against professional actor and musician Steve Martin candidly playing his banjo in front of a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Naperville, IL. Johnson’s image of a Cubs fan hoping to catch a stray home-run ball, dressed in full catcher’s gear behind Wrigley Field, is in stark contrast to his candid portrait of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich – sporting a Cubs baseball cap while dressed in a business suit and tie.
Much like fellow Chicagoan Studs Terkel, Jeffery Johnson shared a moment or two with folks from all walks of life, and shared them with us. Rather, Johnson’s subjects are all of us. We Shared this Time shows different aspects of the larger picture and reveals that these disparate actors in the play of life are not so different in the end. We are all part of the play.
To learn more about Jeffery C. Johnson, please visit his website at https://jefferycjohnson.smugmug.com/. Links to purchase a copy of We Shared this Time can also be found there, or at Blub: https://www.blurb.com/b/9414851-we-shared-this-time
There’s something about a chronicle that can make it extremely personal. Don’t get me wrong, it can also be something that is a record of an event or thing that is widely shared among many people. But in particular, I’m speaking about a photo project or publication that is a chronicle of not just a slice of one second, but the slice of someone’s life.
Allen Lewis sent me his zine No Idea a couple months ago. No Idea reflects upon the road trips he took in his twenties. One could interpret this zine as a visual journey, or a travelogue of scenes witnessed along the way (current day) to points unknown. His color images were shot in a contemporary documentary style with a variety of analogue and digital cameras. He has captured landscapes, scenes both inside and outside buildings and homes, and a person or two – one of which might be a self-portrait.
I am firmly middle-aged, and the idea of a road trip lasting more than a couple days is only something I’d do tons of advance notice. Allan includes text at the back of this zine with comments much along the same lines. When I look at his project with this in mind, a different frame of reference is applied to the images within. It’s like wanderlust with the promise of a comfortable bed you know is waiting at the end of the journey. Some crazed experience like going to summer camp with Hunter S. Thompson is not in the cards. Let’s leave it to someone else to create work based on that premise. No Idea is poignant for me – and that’s perfect. It’s a personal project that has found form in print, and in some sense, this is a great entry for me writing about a photo zine. I made little books on Xerox machines in the ‘90s and they had all the wistful reflection of a dumpster fire. Lewis takes careful consideration of what is going on right here, right now – and contrasts it with his younger self. The work is well crafted and presented.
This zine is far more than a snapshot or quick vignette of a singular theme. Ultimately Lewis takes the opportunity to chronicle and explore concepts and ideas reflecting on what one might not understand in the reckless abandon of youth. As he says in the zine, “I wish I’d had a camera back then. When you were younger you have no idea what you’re witnessing. But does that change as you get older?”
No Idea
Photos and text by Allan Lewis
Copyright 2018, Allan Lewis
