juna 21.2002
PEOPLE
1 1 1 refer to myself as a mas-
j ter of symmetry because
everything has to be
I orderly,” photojoumalist
John Gress admits. “All the
lines have to be even and
everything has to match up or
else it will bug me.”
With little formal training,
this 24-year-old gay man’s
career has developed quickly
from student newspaper to
national media.
Gress grew up in West Linn
and began shooting pictures as
a teen-ager. His big break came
in 1996 when he met a repre
sentative from The Associated
Press while taking pictures of
local flood damage. He submit
ted examples of his work, and
the suburban kid soon found
himself free-lancing for the
news agency before even fin
ishing high school.
Since then, his pictures
have appeared in publications
such as People, Sports Illustrated,
The New York Times Magazine
and USA Today.
I
Get the pic
Photographer
focuses on
people and places
in Portland
t
\
m
111 always knew I wanted to
e Sl6nature unconventional sports photo: G ress shoots a wrestler at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado
unprocessed film, developing negatives and
medalist Bill Johnson, Portland Police Chief
I be a photographer,” says Gress, who stud-
scanning prints. “The other great thing is that I
Mark Kroeker and the Portland Trail Blazers.
lied political science at Portland State U ni
The perfectionist in Gress calls out the tech can shoot an entire project and then upload it
versity and continues to free-lance out of his
to a client’s Web site for them to view.”
nical
elements, pointing to pattern, lighting and
Pearl District studio. “My favorite thing to do
color. He recalls the composition of each shot,
is to shoot portraits, but it’s gratifying to shoot
rabbing his notebook computer, Gress loads a
sports and really nail it. And I get a lot of intel revealing how much preparation went into set
cover shot he’s
ting up what looks like a spontaneous event.
lectual satisfaction from covering politics.”
prepared for a
It’s more than just being at the right place at
As he flips through his portfolio, familiar
corporate
annual
the right time, he explains. For a typical photo
faces appear. His subjects have included, among
report. A colorful
shoot, for example, he’ll drag along about 15
other notables, President Bush, Olympic gold
composite image
pounds of equipment and
shows nine people
some 75 pounds of lighting
staggered among
accessories.
power-generating
About three years ago,
windmills against a
he began working with
twilight horizon.
digital photography, which
“A group por
now constitutes the bulk
trait can be the
of his work. His state-of-
worst thing to take
the-art equipment includes
a picture of,” he
Canon EO S-1D and D-30
claims, but here he’s clearly pulled off just the
cameras. Each holds more
opposite, weaving nearly a dozen images into a
than 100 high-resolution
dramatic and cohesive picture.
images and has a display
“What I want to do is to put a person in
that allows Gress to review
their environment,” he asserts. “I want to
his efforts immediately.
organize the scene so that it accentuates the
“I know exactly what’s
connection. To me, the environment and the
there,” he says, noting
that a digital format elimi person are equally important.”
While portraits rely on a mix of personality
nates handling
John Gress loose backstage at Darcelle X V
li
G
and setting, Gress finds action
in sports. “I don’t like sports
from a fan standpoint, but I love
to shoot it because it’s a chal
lenge,” he says, joking that the
high level of testosterone does
n’t hurt, either. “Most of the
time, I’m looking for emotion,
ball placement and conflict."
To tell a larger story, howev
er, Gress enjoys editorial
assignments that center on cur
rent news events happening
around Oregon. He looks for
aesthetic images that also illus
trate what’s going on.
Sometimes he gets to set up
a shot; other times he just tags
along, capturing whatever visual
elements are present. The latter
can be frustrating, though,
when he spots a more potent
arrangement that could have
greater influence with viewers.
“You could make people
look so much better by just hav
ing them be in the right spot to
take their picture. You could
make them look a lot more
powerful than they are just by
.
positioning them differently,” he
pnngs,
o.
noteS- “if corporations or politi
cians would just set things up so that what they
were doing actually made a great visual, it would
get people to read stories about them.”
When asked to imagine a photo essay illus
trating the Rose City’s sexual minorities com
munity, Gress pauses to consider its range of
identities.
“I’d want to
shoot an older cou
ple that had been
together for a long
time,” he begins,
“because so much
of the time the
focus is on what’s
in your face.
Putting drag
queens on cars, les
bians on motorcy
cles and strippers
on floats doesn’t really represent the broad
array of the community. In an essay, you’d
include all that, but I’d also want to include
things you don’t often see.” J H
Contact J o h n G r e s s at 503'939'7228 or visit
him and his work at www.johngress.com.
TIMOTHY K r a u s e
is a writer and editor in Portland.
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