SWOPE, John

About US-american photographer, John SWOPE (1908-1979)

John SWOPE was a photographer for Life magazine, and a commercial pilot who trained United States Army Air Forces pilots during World War II. He broke the mold of Hollywood's glamour shots when he burst in the scene in 1936. What makes his work unique is how he used available light, shot from unusual angles, and informal portraits.
John SWOPE attended Harvard University in 1930, his interest in photography began when he brought a camera to a yacht race from Los Angeles to Hawaii in 1936. He started his career by documenting federal housing projects, a part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal Program. In 1936, he worked as an assistant to Leland Heyward. In 1938, he was commissioned to photograph the work of nurses in Harlem and the Lower East Side by Henry Street Settlement House. In 1939, he was assigned by Harper's Bazaar in South America with Joshua Logan. In 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. In 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.

Photo books by, on the work of and with works by John SWOPE

• 'Camera over Hollywood: Photographs by John Swope, 1936-1938' (1939); 'Autobiography of a Princess' (1975, by James Ivory); 'A Letter from Japan: The Photographs of John Swope - taken in August 1945 documents the devastation caused by World War II' (2006)
  

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