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John Clark was born in 1957 and grew up in rural Maryland. For a family trip to Washington D.C.
in 1974, he borrowed his high school science teacher's 35mm SLR camera, and was hooked on
photography.
After high school, John pursued an undergraduate degree in chemistry. Continuing his
education, he earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1986. John has followed a career in
chemistry for the past 15 years while making photographs using 35mm and medium format
cameras. Favorite subjects have been
primarily landscapes, but also include portraits and photos of historic aircraft. While
working with small and medium format cameras, he concluded that a larger
negative was necessary to obtain the intense detail and crispness that marks the kind of
landscape photography he wanted to pursue.
In 1999, he built his first large format camera from a build-it-yourself kit. With this camera, John
totally immersed himself in large format photography. Several of the early photos on this
website were taken with this first, hand-built camera. Using the home made camera for about a
year allowed
John to determine that large format photography gives him the right tool for expressing his
photographic vision; he then obtained 4x5 and 8x10 field cameras, the 8x10 camera shown in
the photo on this page. He has used
these two cameras almost exclusively since. With these cameras and the large negatives
that result, the full detail in the western landscape can be captured on film, and subsequently
expressed in John's prints.
John uses his own synthesis of techniques taught by Ansel Adams, John Sexton, and Fred Picker for
both creating the photographs and producing traditional black and white silver gelatin prints.
Long hours in his darkroom have honed John’s
development and printing techniques. Favorite locales for dramatic photographs have
included Owens Valley and the Mammoth Mountain area, Joshua Tree, Death Valley and Yosemite
National Parks, in addition to the San Diego coastal areas.
Married to geologist Margaret Eggers,
many of John’s best photo locations are also areas of intense
geologic interest. Trips to visit family in Florida have also resulted in some lovely
photographs of lakes and beaches of the Gulf Coast of Florida.
Represented by the Ordover Gallery in Solana Beach, CA
Contact John...
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