CivicCouch

“ I became a photographer to share with others some of the amazing things I have seen and experienced myself ”.

The Road to being a Photographer… or How it Happened. I was inspired growing up by my early world travels as a child, my time in the U.S. Army in Asia and influenced by the familiar classic artists and the images in Life Magazine, National Geographic, etc., by photographers Ernst Haas, Cartier Bresson, Pete Turner, Irving Penn, Ansel Adams, Margaret Bourke-White and many others.

In my youth I had a desire to put down on paper my visual perceptions, I always wanted to be an artist, but how?

This quest unknowingly started in 1965 after high school when I joined the Army, went to Vietnam and by chance purchased my first camera. Returning in 1968 I set out to use that camera to photograph my vision albeit in a somewhat haphazard and unstructured way.

Graduating from El Camino Jr. College in 1972 my life took an unexpected and forever life-changing turn when I decided to leave the comforts of the South Bay and travel overland from England to Australia and in the process, visit some of the old haunts from my Army days in South East Asia.

This ‘process’ evolved into an epic adventureand a 3year trip around the world. Losing my passport in Afghanistan, being stuck in India with little money and desperation more than a few times on the doorstep. To afford a boat ticket to Singapore and on to Australia, I had to sell my camera in India

Working in North West Australia, in the middle of the journey on Christmas of 1973 things started to come together. Reflecting on my recent and earlier life experiencesalong with having been without a camera for almost a year, I decided that I was going to be a photographer/artist the rest of my life. At the same time I decided to give myself the lifelong project and hobby of traveling and documenting the subcontinent of India.

In June of 1974 and flush with money that I had squandered away while working, I quit my job in the northwest and headed back to Southeast Asia, Nepal and India to begin my dream.

Returning finally to the South Bay in mid 1975 I went back to school with the remainder of my G.I. bill, I graduated from Dominguez University in 1982 (after two return trips to India in 1978 and 1981 for fieldwork) with an anthropology degree based on my studies in India, which continue to this day.

I didn’t know how to be that Photo/Artist back then, but I guess by just doing it, it kind of worked out.

As a photographer, I sold my first print in 1971 but officially started selling my work full time as photo décor in 1975 and continue doing so to this day. Since 1994my images are sold worldwide for advertising, books, magazines, calendars, etc. through Panoramic Images stock photo agency, Getty Images and National Geographic Photo Collection. You never know when or where in the world you might see one of my images!

I have been lucky to have succeeded as an Art Photographer over all these years and to have a number of my posters and other images become both “the standard by which others are images are judged” and are “Authentic Classic representatives of our South Bay environment.

I have seen many photographers, artists and galleries come and go over the years but I think my work has stood the test of time

“My camera is my brush, the film my palette, the World and the South Bay Beaches are my subjects”.

I recently found out that the JOHN POST GALLERY is listed in one of the Lonely Planet travel guides as a must see gallery when visiting Los Angeles.

At the John Post Gallery, 809 Manhattan Ave. Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, the visitor can find the best images of our South Bay Beaches in Limited Edition Panoramas, Unique Hand Colored Infrared Miniatures a variety of my Posters along with inspiring photos from around the world.

Also visit; www.johnpost.com… You can also email John at…johnmpost@earthlink.net