JOHN STRAUB

MEDIUM

Photography

ARTIST STATEMENT

“As a photographer I find something magical about storytelling with my camera and being an image maker respecting the past, but unafraid of innovation. My images will immerse you in their soul.”

ARTIST BIO

As a preteen, John Straub would sit in his father’s “wet dark room” and observe the images magically appear on the white paper, smelling the pungent odor of the chemicals as the photo paper was dipped from bath to bath, under the glow of a red light. He watched, learned, and practiced as his father taught him about the techniques of modifying black-and-white photos to change their outcome.

With his father’s encouragement, a Minolta 35mm camera with a long lens came into John’s life. His parents would drive him to the beach to take surfing photos along the Southern California coast where he grew up.

By his mid-teens, John became consumed with auto racing and started taking photos at sports car races. This led to entering and winning numerous photo contests with “black and white” photography. Later, by the early 80s, with “color” photography, his images were published as magazine covers and included in feature stories. John’s current photographic interests are automotive, documentary landscape, and micro still life.

This year at the Festival of Arts, John will be showing a series of images he spent three years photographing at the Salton Sea. This area was once the dream of many, called the Riviera of California. The decay that remains has been documented in these nine images, titled “Decaying Dreams.”

As a current member of the “Motor Press Guild,” John now uses his digital camera constantly to improve his craft. His work is currently shown at several Southern California art festivals and has been presented in Carmel and Laguna Beach galleries. Portions of the “Decaying Dreams” series have been shown at the Museum of Art Palm Springs.