Aerial Nudes and iPhone by John Crawford

My name is John Crawford, I live in New Zealand and am honoured to be invited to share my work with the Grryo community.

I would like to start my story back in the early 1980’s in the film days when everything seemed so simple, uncomplicated and straight forward. I began a personal project called ‘Aerial Nudes’. As a commercial photographer I spent hours flying from shoot to shoot in Helicopters. The vibrations and incredible rotor noise would send me into a trance like state of semi consciousness where I was able to block out all sounds, and look through the perspex floor and have a perfect birds eye view. Looking down without the distraction of horizon lines all shapes and patterns in the landscape became linear – clean and strikingly abstract with little sense of scale, and the thought came to me : plop a strategically placed nude within any of these graphic terrains, and bingo – there was the reference point for scale (a reference that also emphasised the point that we infinitesimal human beings so often totally screw our environment without regard for consequences) In those moments my Aerial Nude project was born. Between 1981 and 1986 I completed a series of 18 images. All were shot on 35mm colour negative, from a helicopter from about 1000 feet. Each image was meticulously planned and propped before jumping in the chopper. No post cropping or photoshop was used. I didn’t own a computer, everything was created in camera.

Now on to the present time and my beautiful obsession with smartphone photography which kicked off with the first iPhone in 2007. At present all of my personal work is created on the iPhone. Late last year I completed two large budget commissioned corporate projects on my iPhone 6s. Everything is easy again. Using a variety of cleverly designed in phone apps (particularly Hipstamatic and Snapseed) I can create a better range of different but still believable effects than I can in photoshop on my mac. On average I shoot twenty thousand images a year on my phone. I always shoot square, which is refreshing after years of composing in a rectangle, and brings different compositional dynamics into play. Shooting in this format has reignited my passion for shooting images, it’s difficult to not be inspired or be creative and challenged. There’s a beautiful visual feast in front of our eyes 24/7 if we disregard the noise and nonsense and clutter of life around us. Street photography has been reinvented. Approaching people on the streets, whether they be homeless, pretty, weird or whatever, is much simpler when all that is between your eye and the subject is a 7.1mm thick piece of reasonably unobtrusive high technology rather than an expensive looking SLR and an array of more expensive looking lenses in an expensive branded camera bag. I dress down when shooting on the streets. My strike rate is about 95%, and it’s exciting and rewarding taking time out to roam looking for interesting characters to shoot, either on the spot or ask them to shift to somewhere close by with a cleaner or more dynamic background. It’s a wonderful way of seemingly wasting time and nurturing the soul.
Social media today has made it easy accessing a wealth of outstanding images that are being created daily around the world, Instagram in particular, used by 75 million people each day! I’m a self confessed IG addict, posting my favourite image most days and following 300 like minded photographers, many of whom are absolutely inspirational. It’s like a close knit family of creative souls sharing personal visions. I personally photograph pretty much anything that moves; people, animals, and landscape. I subconsciously look for symmetry of composition when I shoot.

Check out my other works on Instagram (@jonniecraw) and the web (www.johncrawford.co.nz)

Here is a selection of my recent iPhone images, each with a small story. (click the photo to see full size)

: Selfies are a strange concept, hanging over the edge of my kitchen table upside down with iPhone gaff taped to shoe box with 30 second timer on.

: The little bird was tiny and timid but seemed to trust me. Passers by seemed it strange that I lay on the road talking to a sparrow. Stranger things have happened.

: The house was old and decayed and Oscar saw his half brother in the bathroom mirror.

: As a young pup Zooey quickly found what it was like to be a dog when Ricky went for a surf.

: Dogs always look bigger from pavement level.

: She had beautiful long lily white legs.

: Sometimes you find a spot and wait for someone to walk by. Often it doesn’t happen.

: Ruben loves ink and is passionate about the art of tattooing. I ran into him next to the pub. Quietly spoken and modest he had no problem letting me photograph him a month later.

: Josh was proud of his tattoos but not too keen on being photographed at the supermarket where I saw him by the checkout. His girl friend though talked him into it saying ‘isn’t he just beautiful’.

: 57 year old Samual doesn’t suffer fools lightly, he’s spent a few years in the can for gang related trouble but all good now. Under the facade of early Black Power tattoos which cover most of his body and face is an academic side, he is a bachelor of Maori studies with honors. I met him in down town Auckland.

: Dion loves horses, all his family from Te Kaha were bought up riding bareback … to school, to the beach, and later in life to the pub.

: the badge tells the story

: Garth is 101 years old and his wife Nan 95. They’ve been married 74 years, have three daughters, 25 great grand children, and still live in their own house. Nen (bless her) drives the car almost every day, and each evening they sit together and drink a straight gin with just a touch of water. They are a beautiful couple, both remarkably sprightly and on to it.