Spotlight on Donald C. Johnson
SEPTEMBER 2002
Donald C. Johnson specializes in location photography assignments, primarily for the advertising and corporate markets; in metro Chicago, across the USA, and some exposure with northern Europe. Trained as a director of television & motion picture production, his area of expertise is in photographing people, processes, or products in on-location situations, utilizing either extensive flash lighting systems, or working under existing lighting conditions as conditions permit. An emerging interest is shooting and editing digital video productions.
Career highlights include:
- Cover photography production for one of the last Sears Roebuck & Co. big catalogs.
- An "Emmy" nomination from the Chicago Chapter of the Television Academy of Arts & Sciences for a multi-image production produced on behalf of ASMP/Midwest, the Chicago Coalition, & the IL Film Office, and was televised on & nominated by WMAQ-TV(NBC) in Chicago, 1982.
- Exhibiting photographer at the late Art Rental & Sales Gallery of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1978-84.
- Principal photographer and panoramist for the multi-image displays at the Sears Tower Skydeck Tour Center in downtown Chicago where millions visit each year.
- Founding Editor of ASMP/Midwest's photography quarterly journal The Loupe, 1986-88.
- Production of Tribune Broadcasting's WGN-TV's 30-ft.evening cityscape panorama transparency mural backdrop for the set of the "Nine O'Clock News"., 1997-2002.
- Photography produced for a series of annual panorama promotional calendars for Printing Arts/Chicago, 1998-2002.
- Photographing the Walgreen Co.'s 100th Anniversary panoramic "family portrait" of over 4,000 in the theater of the Grand Ol' Opry in Nashville, TN, and the film-to-digital technology process used to produce a 24 x 60" print display mural, 2001.
- A Charter member of the Northbrook(IL) Arts Commission, 2002.
Panoramic photography is a very special feature of Johnson's work, specifically the 6x17cm widefield pan format; and has pioneered a dramatic extension of the 6x17cm fixed lens format. His unique system now includes a full range of 4 crisp interchangeable lenses, from 90-degrees wide, to 15-deg. super-telephoto angles of view on the 7-inch wide film format. Advantages to this widefield film format include extended time exposures, filtration under existing lighting, hand-held aerial work from helicopters, and single-pop flash synchronizations. Panoramic photographs have ranged from industrial theatre's multi-image projected seamless murals, spread layouts and wrap covers in magazines and brochures, to large special displays such as framed murals and billboards. Portfolios are availible upon request.
Johnson holds a B.S.-Speech, majoring in Radio, TV, Film, from Northwestern University. He received NU's Medill School of Journalism's Kay Krieghbaum Memorial Photography Award. He is a past board member of the Midwest Chapter of American Society of Magazine Photographers (ASMP), and founding editor of the chapter's quarterly journal The Loupe. Presently he is a member of MIPA, Mid-States Imaging and Photograpic Association.
Corbis/Stock Market(NY) handles worldwide stock photography sales. Framed prints are offered at Local Color Gallery in Union Pier, MI, near his family country home. Personal time is spent there creating fine art photography in the barrier dunes and and climax forests along Lake Michigan; and working on his golf game. Other interests include involvement on the Northbrook Arts Commission, avid support for the Northwestern University Football program, raising purebred Flat-Coated Retrievers, and jazz. Johnson and his wife, Susan, reside both in Northbrook, IL, and Berrien County, MI, along with a line of champion Flat Coated Retrievers; & are past members of the Flat Coated Retriever Society of America, and the regional Midwest Waterways Flat Coated Retriever Club.