Portfolio: Martin Johnson
Martin Johnson was an amateur photographer from St. Charles, Illinois (about 50 miles west of Chicago) active from the 50s through the 70s. I came across his work when I purchased about 70 carousels of his slides at a flea market. While some of the stuff was your typical family stuff there was also some work that I think is extraordinary, work reminiscent of the 1960s photography of Gary Winogrand and Lee Friedlander- shots taken from behind the wheel of the car while driving across country, a series of photos of burning buildings, some great cruise ship photos, and two series of photos taken of TV screens- one of JFK's funeral, the other of RFK's funeral. Here's a small sample.
*Update*
Martin's grandson stumbled across these photos here on the web and was nice enough to send me a little background information on his grandfather. Mike writes:
He was born in 1895 and lived most of his life in the Elgin-St. Charles area. He worked in the construction industry as a heavy equipment operator. Early in the 20th century, he went to the iron range of Minnesota to look for work. I have the original license certificate issued by the State of Minnesota in 1916 which permitted my grandfather to operate a steam shovel up to 100 horsepower. By the time I came along in the early 60's, he was working in the printing business. I believe he also worked for the Elgin Watch Company, like everyone else in Elgin did back then.
Marty also enjoyed traveling, especially on cruise boats, which I am sure you have already figured out from the slides, and working with time pieces. He had so many mechanical clocks in his house that when they would chime, the conversations would have to cease until the clocks finished sounding off. He was mechanically inclined and enjoyed working with his hands.
He was very interested in the latest technology from the time I knew him. I imagine that had something to do with his interest in photography-it gave him an opportunity to buy newer and better gadgets all the time. In fact, I still have some of his old equipment. He seemed partial to Minolta and Pentax cameras.
Thanks for the info Mike! As I go through the slides (hopefully I'll find some family stuff that I can return to Mike) I'll certainly be adding more photos to this page.
