John’s Visual Resume
While I’ve been a photographer most of my life, I started my career long before ubiquitous camera phones, and often was in situations where it wasn’t always easy (or allowed) to take photos of my professional work. But I have pieced together here a number of photos of representative projects from my career. Click any photo to enlarge; full bio here.
1979ish My home made lighting system. Notice the line voltage flash pots.
1979ish My home made lighting system
My first day on the job in 1985 at Associates and Ferren, unloading an electron microscope from a truck. I had graduated from college a couple days earlier.
This was the set for The Manhattan Project. I was hired as a welder.
The Associates and Ferren team before set load out.
The set in place for the movie. That's me on the laser table on the lower right.
Me and my friend Mark on the laser table. I'm in the movie several times.
I started as welder but went over and talked to the guys doing control systems at lunch every day and eventually got my own bench (photo by Chester Hartwell)
We build the control system for this air cannon to put out fires on navy ships.
Here's the control box.
This was the Corning fiber optic "Torture Test" which we made for trade show use. This was from a video shoot at about 2am after we finished it; the truck driver showed up early so we just loaded it on the truck and went home to sleep.
Video was shot on the camera at left and then sent (analog!) through fiber optic cable to the monitor at right. It got freezed, fried, zapped, stretched and other things along they way.
First usage of the unit in St. Louis; the guy from Corning handed me my screwdriver which I left in the bottom.
Inside the back of the unit
One of my first CAD drawings, done with a light pen on a Tektronics CAD station.
A projector simulator for Bob Fosse's "Big Deal" on Broadway
Simulating lighting for a Dodge Daytona commercial in California.
A brush fire broke out beneath the crane while I was up there.
The first ending we shot for Little Shop of Horrors where the plant breaks through the screen; this was cut after a test screening.
The second ending we shot for Little Shop of Horrors in Pinewood Studios in England where the plant was electrocuted and blown up.
Me on the set of Little Shop. Photo by Chester Hartwell.
The Associates and Ferren crew, some of the most brilliant people I've ever known.
198x Touring Film Projectors (Photo Chester Hartwell)
198x Touring Film projector we made for Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, Rush and many others (Photo Chester Hartwell)
The globe sequence for "Making Mr. Right". Both the camera and the globe were computer controlled.
Me with the rotating motion-controlled 35mm film camera that we built.
Note the computer at left. a PDP-11
198x Aetna Commercial, tornado in a tank. I know now that the tornado is rotating the wrong direction.
1985 WTC Illumination
1985 WTC Illumination. This is a single 20K Xenon light.
1985 WTC Illumination
1985 WTC Illumination
1988 Me and my fellow projectionist with one of the three Elvi, Cleveland
Moving projector for Elvis musical 1988. I was at Yale when we did this but worked on the tour during the summer.
1989-The first show I did in NYC
1989-The first show I did in NYC
1991 Theatre Crafts sound issue. Being a technical editor for TC and Lighting Dimensions was my first job in NYC
1991 Theatre Crafts sound issue. Being a technical editor for TC and Lighting Dimensions was my first job in NYC
1994 IntantGirl--One of many shows I sound designed in those days.
1995-One of my favorite sound designs, featuring the late Adrienne Shelley
1995-One of my favorite sound designs, featuring the late Adrienne Shelley
1993 Treasure Island Hotel Buccaneer Bay Attraction for Production Arts Lighting
1993 Treasure Island Hotel Buccaneer Bay Attraction
1993 Treasure Island Hotel Buccaneer Bay Attraction
1993 Treasure Island Hotel Buccaneer Bay attraction. Production Arts did the lighting and lighting show control.
1993 Treasure Island Hotel Buccaneer Bay Attraction
1993 Treasure Island Hotel Buccaneer Bay attraction. The pool was filled with water, the ship was on a track and moved around and then sunk.
1994 The first edition of my book Control Systems for Live Entertainment
199x MS Ryndam ship construction for Holland America in Trieste, Italy for Production Arts Lighting.
199x MS Ryndam ship construction for Holland America in Trieste, Italy for Production Arts Lighting.
1997 Les Quatre Vents Interactive Sound System
199x-200x Met Opera/NY Philharmonic Parks Tour
199x- Met Opera/NY Philharmonic Parks Tour. We took over this tour while I was working at the Metropolitan Opera and oversaw the evolution of this through to a modern stage and sound system.
199x-200x Met Opera/NY Philharmonic Parks Tour
199x-200x Met Opera/NY Philharmonic Parks Tour
199x-200x Met Opera/NY Philharmonic Parks Tour (picture from 1995)
1996 Madison Scare Garden
1996 Madison Scare Garden
1998 Blue Man Group Chicago. I did some system consulting on this show while working for George Kindler's Thoughtful Designs.
The first Haunted House at Citytech in 1999. Very few photos exist.
Evita in 2000. That's Dataton Watchout V1.0
2000 Control Systems for Live Entertainment, Second Edition
2001 Gravesend Inn Show Control System
2001 Gravesend Inn control systems
2001-era Gravesend Inn input system
2002 Game Show with video playback.
Animatronic Pirate, bought in 2002 (photo 2015)
2002 First Lego League Video. We partnered with Scharff-Weisberg.
2002 Met Opera/NY Philharmonic Tour Sound Crew
Version 2 of the Gravesend Inn input system, circa 2004
2004 Tribeca Film Festival "Drive In"
2004 Tribeca Film Festival "Drive In"
2004 Tribeca Film Festival "Drive In"
2004 Tribeca Film Festival "Drive In"
2004 Tribeca Film Festival "Drive In"
Private Garden 2004
2007 SGU Podcast Live Recording, and the first with the PM5D
2007 Radio city Christmas Spectacular Bus. I designed and programmed the system that synchronizes the bus to time code. There was also two touring versions as well and as of 2022 the bus is still in the show.
2007 Gravesend Inn video control
2007 Third (and final) edition of Control Systems for Live Entertainment
2008 Gravesend Inn audio and show control
2008 Tribeca Film Festival (notice analog console)
2009 Theatre For One
2010 New York Philharmonic in Central Park
2010 New York Philharmonic in Central Park
2010 Private Garden in Nantucket
2010 Private Garden in Nantucket
2011 "Weird or What" with William Shatner on Infrasound
2011 Gravesend Inn from a Japanese TV Broadcast
2011 Gravesend Inn from a Chinese TV Broadcast
2012 Show Networks and Control Systems First Edition (self published)
2011 Looking Glass Rewondered
2013 Maker Faire with Gravesend Inn Control System
2013 VUE Speaker Demo
2013 Tribeca Film Festival
2013 Animatronic control system
2013 Talent Show
2014 Wingman
2014 Wingman
2014 The Tribeca Film Festival "Drive In". I designed the sound system for this show for 12 years. This was the second location and the basic design to which we evolved.
2014 Tribeca Film Festival Line array hang on a custom truss tower. Originally the speakers were behind the inflatable screen.
2015 Youtube Brandcast
2015 Youtube Brandcast
2015 .357 Lover/Love Show
2015-The final Tribeca Film Festival "Drive In"
2015-The final Tribeca Film Festival "Drive In"
2015 student subwoofer measurement in the parking lot
2015 KiKi Experience Winter Concert
2016 Elevator Repair Service
2016 Tanya Solomon Truth Assasin
2017 Show Networks and Control Systems 2nd (and final) edition
2016 Gravesend Inn
2017 Kevin!
2017 Gravesend Inn video update to brightsign players
2017 Gravesend Inn video surveillance system
2018 Final Reel
2018 animatronic control system
2018 animatronic control system
2018 Gravesend Inn input system #3
2018 Gravesend Inn input system #3
2018 Gravesend Inn input system #3
2018 Gravesend Inn show control
2018 Gravesend Inn
2018 Gravesend Inn
2018 Gravesend Inn
2019 Gravesend Inn queue line system
2019 Gravesend Inn--the last full edition
2019 Gravesend Inn--the last full edition
2019 Gravesend Inn--the last full edition
2019 Gravesend Inn--the last full edition
2019 Gravesend Inn--the last full edition
2019 Stage Lighting Super Saturday
2019 installed animatronic rack
2019 installed animatronic rack
2019 RCF Line Array
2019 RCF Line Array
2019 Trillogy Concert
2019 Large Show Control Consulting
2020 Electro-Acoustic Improvisation summit
2020 Stage Lighting Super Saturday
2020 Seal Monitoring Camera
2020 Introduction to Show Networking, First Edition
2021 Lockdown audio/video for the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus
2021 New Projector
2021 abbreviated Gravesend Inn
2021 abbreviated Gravesend Inn
2021 abbreviated Gravesend Inn
2022 "A Cowboy From The Bronx"
2022 Electro Acoustic Improvisation Summit
2022 Bindlestiff Family Cirkus Open Stage
My last show as a full time Professor at CityTech, December 2022