While at Brooks, we often had to take photographs of people and invariably students ended up asking other students to pose for their assignment. Most of the time, the outcome wasn’t so good as photography students generally make better photographers than they do models.
But some of the photographers, no matter how inexperienced their subjects were, always came up with great results. John McKivett was one of those photographers. So when he asked me and my then girlfriend to pose for him for a project, we both eagerly agreed. The assignment was called Fondly in Love, or something like that and John wanted Heather and I to exude fond love. Or something like that. John was one of the more creative students at Brooks at the time, and I have so many dear memories of him coming up with whacky ideas and then watching him pull them off.
John died suddenly a few years ago, dropped like a stone from a heart attack at 35. I still haven’t recovered from the loss as he truly was a remarkable human being, a wonderful friend and an amazingly talented photographer. So when I was leafing through the box of prints and came across this, I thought it’d be a nice way of introducing some of you to Johnny Wrong Way. And probably the best Valentine I could give my wife.
Love those dear to you everyone, we never know how much of it’s left.
