Born in Liverpool in 1972, John immigrated to Australia in his youth and spent his formative years in Melbourne. He starting taking pictures in his early teens, spent all his spare time in the school darkroom and set his sights on becoming a professional photographer. That was until at aged 16, a one-week work experience placement with a suburban portrait photographer completely put him off that idea. It took him a decade to recover and pick up his camera again. He returned to the UK in the late 90s and embarked on that career he’d always wanted.

He is now best known for his still life work and in recent years has worked on campaigns for Orange, Visit London, Vitra and the V&A. Keen on collaboration and observation, John likes to twist the things we experience every day and make us see humour & beauty where they’d otherwise be overlooked. His work with set designer & artist Chrissie McDonald caught the eye of Fallon, who have used this team to produce the Orange campaigns for the last two years. He has also recently collaborated with Rachel Thomas on the current Transport for London campaign with M&C Saatchi. He’s comfortable with pure product as well as concept, as can be seen in his work for Bombay Sapphire, Swarovski and his current campaign for Schweppes.

As a counterbalance to his time in the studio, John travels widely in search of those special scenes that he feels compelled to commit to film. His trips to Greenland, Mongolia and the Australian desert have produced beautifully serene images that contrast with the common perception of what lies in these far off places. John is currently working on a collection of his archived 35mm images that comprise everything from his daily snaps to his far off wanderings.

http://www.johnshort.com

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