John Swope (photographer)

John Swope
John Swope
	Swope in 1934
Born	August 23, 1908; New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	May 11, 1979 (aged 70); Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Known for	Photography
Spouse	Dorothy McGuire (m. 1943)
Children	2, including Topo Swope
Website	www.craigkrullgallery.com/Swope.J/

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.^{[citation needed]} 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

A Letter from Japan: The Photographs of John Swope - taken in August 1945 documents the devastation caused by World War II. This photographic essay was complemented by a 144-page letter to his wife Dorothy McGuire describing in detail his emotional experience when shooting these images.^[6]^[12]^[13]^[14]
Swope's photography has been the subject of five solo exhibitions at Craig Krull Gallery in Santa Monica, California; "Trees" in 2006, "New York" in 2005, "Photographs" in 2003, "Camera over Hollywood" in 2001, and "A View from Above" in 1996.^[15]

Books

Camera over Hollywood: Photographs by John Swope, 1936-1938 (published in 1939)^[6]^[9]

External links

John Swope at IMDb
Swope's photographs at MPTV Images.

References

^ "John Swope at Craig Krull Gallery". Craig Krull Gallery. Retrieved November 17, 2010. Swope was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1908. ... died in Los Angeles in 1979.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Arizona Memory Project : Browse". Azmemory.lib.az.us. Archived from the original on January 2, 2011. Retrieved December 23, 2010.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Swope, John. "John Swope at Craig Krull Gallery". Craigkrullgallery.com. Retrieved February 28, 2011.
^ S. Ballard (2010-04-11). "notredamephoto: John Swope". Notredamephoto.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2010-12-23.
^ "Oldies and Oddities: Tinseltown's Training Base". Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine. Retrieved November 21, 2010. 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.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center". Tfaoi.com. Retrieved December 23, 2010.
^ "Camera Over Hollywood: Photographs by John Swope, 1936-1938 — Presentation House Gallery". Absolutearts.com. Retrieved December 23, 2010.
^ "Three American Photographers, Block Museum, Northwestern University". Blockmuseum.northwestern.edu. Archived from the original on April 21, 2011. Retrieved December 23, 2010.
^ ^a ^b "John Swope Exhibit Shows the True Face of Hollywood | Art Business News | Find Articles at BNET". Findarticles.com. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved February 28, 2011.
^ "John Swope Exhibit Shows the True Face of Hollywood. (Brief Article)". November 1, 2000.^{[dead link‍]}
^ "John Swope at Craig Krull Gallery". Craigkrullgallery.com. Retrieved February 28, 2011.
^ "Steidl". Steidlville.com. Retrieved December 23, 2010.
^ "A Letter from Japan - Exhibitions - Hammer Museum". Hammer.ucla.edu. Archived from the original on April 8, 2011. Retrieved December 23, 2010.
^ "Sake-Drenched Postcards - John Swope: A Letter from Japan". Bigempire.com. Retrieved December 23, 2010.
^ "Past Exhibitions at Craig Krull Gallery". craigkrullgallery.com. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2011-05-20.