John E. Simmons.com

John Simmons and Mamiya RB67

My varied career has included stints as a professional musician, a lawyer, a newspaper sportswriter/editor, a photographer and as a television producer.

I now trundle along photographing from overcrowded, traffic-snarled Jacksonville Beach, Florida. The cameras I use most are a 25-year old Orbit 8×10 with a 100-year old Rapid Rectilinear lens, a 30-year old Mamiya RB-67, a 60-year old 4×5 Speed Graphic, a 60-year old Miniature Speed Graphic – and yes, I occasionally get out the old 127 Brownie.

I compose using the flexible Emulator X2 sampler from E-mu, sounds from Garritan Personal Orchestra, Garritan Jazz and Big Band, and wonderful voices from Bela D. Media. I’ve used Cakewalk sequencers for more than a decade, and have recently begun to use the amazing Overture 4 notation program from Geniesoft that’s really a sequencer in itself.

As everyone is supposed to have an artist’s statement, here’s mine:

Vigorously avoiding pretentious sentences beginning with subordinate clauses, all the while eschewing obfuscation, John E. Simmons presents his Artist’s Statement thusly: The world’s a bomb. Here are some interesting little bits of it.  Look and listen, don’t read – the prints and sounds, not words about them, are the presentation. Unless, of course, you’re reading something I’ve written – then the words are all.

Awards

Associated Press Best Newscast Award 1985

Series “The Quality Basic Education Act,” Georgia Association of Educators School Bell Award 1987

Associated Press Best Newscast Award 1991

Associated Press Best Continuing Coverage Award 1991 (Gulf War Coverage)

Gavin Conwell Documentary, Summit Award 2001

Hayley Hawkinberry Documentary, Communicator Award 2001

Anika Sulzburg Documentary, Communicator Award 2001

Axiem Award for Excellence in Electronic Media 2001

David Hoffman Documentary, The DV Award 2002

Estate of Jim Warmowski Documentary, Communicator Award 2002

Maurice Duncan Documentary, The DV Award 2002, Communicator Award 2002

Dr. Alvin Gross Documentary, The DV Award 2002, Communicator Award 2002

Skye McQueen Documentary, The DV Award 2002, Communicator Award 2002

Johanna Shirley Documentary, The DV Award 2003, Summit Award 2003

Michael Walters Documentary, The DV Award 2003, Summit Award 2003

Krista Miller Documentary, The DV Award 2006

Gallery/Art Association Showings

Macon Art Association, 1986

Madison Arts Festival 1986

Vandroff Gallery (Jacksonville Camera Club Juried Show) 2003

Alachua County Public Library (NE Florida Large Format Group) 2004

Vandroff Gallery (Jacksonville Camera Club Juried Show) 2005

BluJava Coffee Shop 2005

Vandroff Gallery (Jacksonville Camera Club Juried Show) 2006

Beaches Pubic Library Show 2008

Shelby’s Coffee Shop (Juried Show) 2009