We recently connected with John Hancock and have shared our conversation below.
Hi John, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
By far my most meaningful project was my “Musical Chair” series. The project came about because I wanted to do something to show my appreciation to the musicians in the local San Diego music scene. The idea came after I did a photo shoot with local jazz singer, Steph Johnson. She posed in an old chair we had in the studio. I thought what a fun idea it would be to have different musicians all pose in the same chair. I found a great old chair on Craigslist and the Musical Chair series was born. Over the course of a couple years, I photographed over 160 different musicians in, on or under the chair. It soon became a challenge for each musician to try and do something with the chair that nobody else had done. I was amazed at the creativity of these artists and the different poses they came up with. Everything from turning the chair upside down to sitting in the chair upside down to yoga pose. The project enabled me to meet musical artists I had not met before as well as photograph many of my friends in the local music scene. I am proud to say that to this day, 10 years since the last shoot, musicians still use some of the photos for promotional purposes. I have been asked many times if I am going to revive the series, but that old chair, which I still have in my garage, took quite a beating. I don’t think it could stand up to another series.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I have always loved music and photography, Unfortunately, my musical talents are severely lacking. I decided that I would try my hand at music photography. I got my start shooting local music acts while in the army stationed in Hawaii. After I retired from the army, I ended up in San Diego, CA. The local music scene in San Diego is amazing and I started shooting shows at a coffee house called Lestat’s. They had local musicians as well as some national touring acts come through. I photographed as many of the free music festivals so I could to get practice shooting bigger bands on bigger stages. Soon my photos were being published in local publications like the San Diego Troubador, San Diego Magazine and Boogie Magazine. Eventually I was able to start working for NBC San Diego’s website, SoundDiego, photographing major acts like Heart, KISS, Imagine Dragons, Tom Petty, and so many others. I still love photographing local musicians and try to get out to the local music scene as much as possible. I now live in a small rural community north of San Diego, called Ramona. We have an amazing local music scene up here and I have been lucky enough to become one of the primary music photographers here. I am available to photograph live music shows, studio shoots and on location promotional shoots. In addition, since Ramona is horse country, I have recently become very involved in equine photography. Mostly barrel racing, but I also photograph horse and rider portraits. I truly enjoy photography and working with people. I like to have fun when I shoot and if you don’t laugh out loud during one of our shoots, I consider it a failure.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
This one is pretty simple. Respect artists and the time and effort that goes into their work. When you go to a concert, buy a cd or a t-shirt. Yeah, you may stream music and never listen to that CD,but buying directly from the artist means the money actually goes to the artist. If they have a tip jar, tip generously. Sometimes, that is all they are getting paid for a gig. Speaking of that, if you are a venue that hires musicians, please pay them well. People are coming to your place of business that may not otherwise come and they are spending money on drinks and/or food.
Artists, please respect other artists. If you are a headliner, go out and listen to the opening acts, You were an opening act once. If you are an opening act, stick around and check out the headliners. You may learn something!
If you need photographs, please remember exposure does not pay the bills. Photographers do a lot more than just take photos. They probably spend more time editing the photos and making sure you look good than they do actually photographing a show.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
I wish we had YouTube when I was young. I am constantly going to YouTube not only to learn new things but for inspiration. There are so many amazing photographers that share ideas on YouTube. If you are a concert photographer YouTube is a great place to do some research before you go shoot a show. Look for live video performances of the bands you are going to shoot and watch what they do. You can get some ideas of when they might jump, or what side of the stage is best to set up on for the coolest shots. YouTube is definitely my go to place for anything I want to do photographically.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.johnhancockphotos.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnhancockphotos/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jjhancock/
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/JohnHancocksMusicalChair https://www.facebook.com/johnhancockphotos/