John Carney

John Carney became interested in still photography and the power of the image long before he received any formal education. One of the things he always looked forward to growing up was attending the Saturday afternoon matinee, which included two features, a serial, a cartoon and previews of coming attractions.

John attended Cabrillo Jr. College in Santa Cruz and earned an AA degree. Later in the 1970's he attended the San Francisco Art Institute where he studied Film and Photography. He received both a BFA and an MFA degree from the Art Institute. Over the years he attended many production, technical workshops and writing seminars.

John moved to L.A. to learn about feature films where he lived for several years and worked on many Indie films, big-budget studio features and commercials. In Hollywood he worked on different productions alongside some of the most talented filmmakers - writers, directors, cinematographers of the day. He was the CLT on The Perfect Storm for academy-award winning Cinematographer John Seale and Director Wolfgang Peterson. Other films include: Wild at Heart, American Beauty, Ghosts of Mississippi, City of Angels, Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands, Field of Dreams, Serpent and the Rainbow#

John has been involved with Native American culture for several years. He was the co-Writer, Producer, Director on The Chief Mountain Hot Shots, We Pray with Tobacco and The Iron Lodge, documentaries that explore the Native American experience which were produced with his former wife and partner. He was co-Producer for War Dogs of Vietnam, a Discovery documentary about the Vietnam War.

Recently John wrote and directed Big John on the Road, a documentary about car culture in Santa Cruz. He is working hard to finish a show about the life and work of Will Giles, a fine art still photographer and teacher.

John has been able to help a new generation of storytellers by teaching lighting, photography and greenscreen techniques at the Digital Media Factory in Santa Cruz. He was co-Writer and Director on a 12 part educational series for Digital Education Productions in Half Moon Bay.

He is currently a Marketing Writer for a vitamin/supplement company in Santa Cruz. John continues to create his fine art photography, now using digital tools. You might see some of his current work in a small gallery or coffee shop around Santa Cruz. When he is caught up with everything, he might relax by organizing his collection of rare glass negatives that he is just beginning to archive.