John Swope (photographer) explained

John Swope
Birth Date:23 August 1908
Birth Place:New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.
Death Place:Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Children:2, including Topo Swope
Field:Photography

John Swope (August 23, 1908 – May 11, 1979) was a photographer for Life,[1] [2] and a commercial pilot who trained United States Army Air Forces pilots during World War II.[2]

Biography

He was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1908.[3]

He attended Harvard University in 1930. There, he joined the theatrical group University Players, where Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan and Joshua Logan were also members.[4]

His interest in photography began when he brought a camera to a yacht race from Los Angeles to Hawaii in 1936.[3]

Together with Leland Hayward and John H. Connelly, he co-founded Southwest Airways (no connection to the present day Southwest Airlines), a company that developed the Thunderbird Fields, which trained thousands of military pilots during the Second World War.[2] [5]

He was married to actress Dorothy McGuire in 1943 until his death on May 11, 1979. Together they had two children.

Career

He started his career by documenting federal housing projects, a part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal Program.[6]

1936 — He worked as an assistant to Leland Heyward.[7]

1938 — He was commissioned to photograph the work of nurses in Harlem and the Lower East Side by Henry Street Settlement House.[3]

1939 — He was assigned by Harper's Bazaar in South America with Joshua Logan.[3]

1941 — He began training Aviation cadets in Thunderbird Airfield right after he joined the Army.[6]

1942 — He collaborated with John Steinbeck on an illustrated book, Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber Team, which documented the training of army cadets.[6]

1945 — He joined the Naval Reserve as a photographer. His first assignment, in June 1945, was to photograph an overseas military flight from Maryland to Paris.[8]

1946 — Began his freelancing career again after his discharge from the Navy. He produced a theatrical play at the La Jolla Playhouse.[6]

1975 — Photographed palaces of the maharajahs in India for the James Ivory book, Autobiography of a Princess[9]

Influences

John Swope broke the mold of Hollywood's glamour shots when he burst in the scene in 1936.[10] What makes his work unique is how he used available light, shot from unusual angles, and informal portraits. This might come from his influence of Mondrian's use of linear space.[11]

Exhibitions

Books

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: John Swope at Craig Krull Gallery . November 17, 2010 . Craig Krull Gallery . Swope was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1908. ... died in Los Angeles in 1979..
  2. Web site: Arizona Memory Project : Browse . Azmemory.lib.az.us . December 23, 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110102204708/http://azmemory.lib.az.us/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=%2Ftgmhistcoll . January 2, 2011 .
  3. Web site: John . Swope . John Swope at Craig Krull Gallery . Craigkrullgallery.com . February 28, 2011.
  4. Web site: S. Ballard . notredamephoto: John Swope . Notredamephoto.blogspot.com . 2010-04-11 . 2010-12-23.
  5. Web site: Oldies and Oddities: Tinseltown's Training Base . November 21, 2010 . Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine . They enlisted John Swope, a commercial pilot and photographer who had once shared a bachelor pad with Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda and who would later collaborate with John Steinbeck on the book Bombs Away..
  6. Web site: Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center . Tfaoi.com . December 23, 2010.
  7. Web site: Camera Over Hollywood: Photographs by John Swope, 1936-1938 — Presentation House Gallery . Absolutearts.com . December 23, 2010.
  8. Web site: Three American Photographers, Block Museum, Northwestern University . Blockmuseum.northwestern.edu . December 23, 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110421030106/http://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/threeamericanphotographers/index.html . April 21, 2011 .
  9. Web site: John Swope Exhibit Shows the True Face of Hollywood | Art Business News | Find Articles at BNET . Findarticles.com . February 28, 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20071012212125/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HMU/is_12_27/ai_73393224 . October 12, 2007 .
  10. Web site: John Swope Exhibit Shows the True Face of Hollywood. (Brief Article). November 1, 2000 .
  11. Web site: John Swope at Craig Krull Gallery . Craigkrullgallery.com . February 28, 2011.
  12. Web site: Steidl . Steidlville.com . December 23, 2010.
  13. Web site: A Letter from Japan - Exhibitions - Hammer Museum . Hammer.ucla.edu . December 23, 2010.
  14. Web site: Sake-Drenched Postcards - John Swope: A Letter from Japan . Bigempire.com . December 23, 2010.
  15. Web site: Past Exhibitions at Craig Krull Gallery. craigkrullgallery.com.

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