Dr. John Perkins

Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Personal Work

Dr. John Perkins photo by John Keatley

This picture came about because I felt compelled to photograph John Perkins after hearing him speak.  Not many people have been through, and seen what he has.  Harassment, imprisonment, beatings, and the murder of his brother by a town marshal in Mississippi.  I mentioned to my wife I would love to photograph him, and she said, “You should go talk to him.”  I figured it couldn’t hurt, so I gave it a shot.  Next thing I knew, I had an appointment to photograph John Perkins.

John and I drove around for a few hours together.  It was part photo shoot, and part tour of the city.  Turns out he had been scheduled for events and lectures his entire trip, and he was excited to get away and relax a bit.  It was quite an experience spending part of a day with John.  I have never met anyone who can naturally start up a meaningful conversation with strangers, but that’s what he did several times.

The portraits from this shoot have led to two commercial assignments, as well as an assignment to photograph John again.  Thank you personal work!

Dr. John Perkins has been an outspoken leader in civil rights, and is also an author, speaker and teacher on issues of racial reconciliation, leadership, and community development.

Tags: , , ,

Permalink | February 13th, 2009

14 Responses to “Dr. John Perkins”

  1. Monica Schlange Says:
    February 14th, 2009 at 12:30 pm

    BEAUTIFUL photo! I love everything about it!!!

  2. Martin Birkner Says:
    February 24th, 2009 at 3:30 am

    Hi John,
    you made a great atmospheric photo!

    How was the lighting setup?
    Maybe a Grid Spot on the face, and two other light-sources from left and right?
    I could`nt explain how the light falls off so quickly at the edges of his body- or is that Post processed?
    I`d really like to know.

    All the best from germany,
    Martin

  3. John Keatley Says:
    February 24th, 2009 at 8:11 am

    The lighting on this was actually very simple. 2 heads. A 7 inch reflector on one and a 36 inch umbrella with no backing on the other. I placed both heads very close to the subject.

  4. Martin Birkner Says:
    February 25th, 2009 at 3:38 am

    Thanx!
    Cool things could be so simple ;)

  5. Byron Jackson Says:
    February 25th, 2009 at 4:55 am

    Love the lighting….super job !

  6. Robert Says:
    February 25th, 2009 at 11:29 pm

    John, I just discovered your blog (as did probably about 50 000-100 000 others in the coming couple of days) through the Strobist page but I knew of your work from way back. I just love your back to basics, simple, strong portraiture. Coming from a background in oil portrait painting I can really appreciate your compositions and lighting. I wish I could hire you to do the shoots I manage at work here in Tokyo but unfortunately we work strictly with a short list of local (un)talent. The only thing I can say is more! More posts, bigger photos, more text. If I ever have my picture taken, someday, somewhere, it should be you. Blog on!

  7. Jessi Says:
    February 26th, 2009 at 7:23 am

    Fantastic! Love the lighting.

  8. John van Rosendaal Says:
    February 27th, 2009 at 3:45 am

    Like the blog and love this image. Would really appreciate it if you added a line or two about lighting an post-processing.

  9. Benoit David Says:
    February 27th, 2009 at 5:27 am

    Very interesting indeed. Personal work brings the essence of what we want to shot, even without realizing it.

  10. Max Says:
    February 27th, 2009 at 3:05 pm

    Hi John,
    I’d be interested to know what you said to Dr. Perkins when you first approached him. I’m traveling to Thailand and Cambodia next week and I’d like to this sort of thing as much as possible. Great work!

    Max

  11. Brian Cook Says:
    August 3rd, 2009 at 4:47 pm

    I spent a week in Mississippi with John and his family. We installed a wheel chair ramp on his home so Vera Mae could get around. He is a great man.

  12. Martyn Says:
    August 16th, 2009 at 6:21 pm

    Wow!! A class shot. Your lighting and colour add much drama. A powerful image.

  13. John Keatley Blog » Blog Archive » John Perkins Book Cover Says:
    February 2nd, 2010 at 11:07 am

    [...] and as you can see, the subject is John Perkins.  I have already written about John on my blog (here), and I have now had the opportunity to work with him on multiple occasions.  Love Is The Final [...]

  14. kyle hale Says:
    February 2nd, 2010 at 12:06 pm

    man, I love this photo so much.

Leave a Reply