Jim Herrington: Portrait of the Photographer

by Diana Bonebrake
Art Editor, La Luciole Magazine



Photographs by Jim Herrington:

Jim Herrington. You may not know his name but you’ve seen his photographs.  Herrington has worked for dozens of major American magazines (Rolling Stone, Esquire, GQ, National Geographic Magazine, Vanity Fair, etc.); virtually every major record label; numerous publishing houses, advertising agencies, and private companies. You might remember seeing his iconic portrait of Merle Haggard, taken in 2000 Temecula, CA. Or that shot of Dolly Parton, grinning out from behind the wheel of a car in Joelton, Tennessee; or Ron Wood, at his home in Ireland, in the mid-nineties. 

 For thirty years Jim Herrington has been taking pictures, and he just completed a retrospective show in his hometown of Milwaukee, WI. Herrington goes where the work is. He travels all over the place.  His work is both sensuous and gritty. His portraits of musicians recall the great studio shots of the stars taken in the 30’s and 40’s-- but without the soft focus, retouches, or smoke and mirrors. These are pictures of real people, pictures that vibrate with life.   And his startling photos of places and things he has discovered during his travels are, well, strange, and most fascinating. They are both personal and timeless.  Myself, I think of Herrington’s work as fine art.

I put a few questions to Jim: 

 
Artists/photographers that inform your work?

That's a long list.  When I was REALLY young, I liked looking at our family's Encyclopedia Britannica, an old 50’s edition.  I'm guessing that a lot of the photographs were probably file photos from the 40’s...  The photos of Kuwait or Fargo, ND or of some guy operating an Icelandic warp-weighted loom... anything... they were all interesting to me, because I was in podunk Salisbury, NC, and I could already guess that there was a big ‘ol world out there. So anything with a story behind it I was interested in.  Then, when I was still young, my dad had a collection of old Life Magazines, from the 30’s and 40’s.  It was years later before I realized those photos were taken by the likes of Walker Evans and Margaret Bourke-White, but I used to leaf through those magazines and dream.  It started dawning on me that someone was taking these photos... getting hired to travel around the world and bring back stories, or evidence, of other people and places.  It got me thinking that one day I would like to do that.  I also watched a lot of old movies and I loved the look of them... John Huston movies (although I was just watching for Bogart at that age), James Cagney, Marx Bros. movies... all of it.  Then, when I was a little older, I found out that you could go to the public library and have them screen old 16mm movies for you...  You went into a closet, kind of like a peep show booth, and you sat there alone with the sound of the projector almost drowning out the actual audio of the movie... That's where I watched my first Luis Buñuel movie, and it was years before I found anyone to talk about it with.

But... you asked about photographers, so I could list many that I've liked, or like.  Diane Arbus, Gary Winogrand, Lee Friedlander, Robert Frank, Avedon, Penn, William Klein, Carleton Watkins, Gustave Le Gray, Emmet Gowin, WeeGee, Helen Levitt, Cartier-Bresson, William Eggleston, Walker Evans, Brassai, John Deakin...  and tons more.  And, as inspiring to me, sometimes more so, are just the old amateur snapshots you find in granny's attic or at a yard sale.

How many years did it take you to develop what you feel is your own distinct style?

That's a good question, because I think, if anything, I've developed an anti-style; or at least I think so.  When I was young I tried to experiment and be really different, for the sake of just trying new things and trying to develop a look that was unique and set me apart...  But I think, or hope anyway, that I've managed to be less self-conscious through the years and become much more concerned with WHAT I was photographing, rather than gussy up a photo that wasn't there to begin with. 

It sounds like a typical question, but one of the things I love about your work is that it is so gorgeous and gritty at the same time.

Do you set up shoots or carry a camera with you?

I've done, and do both.  Left to my own devices, I'd rather, and usually do, show up with a very small and basic set-up:  A camera and some film. 

But, aside from my personal work, and the music and editorial work that I do, I also take advertising jobs to keep the coffers topped off.  And with those kinds of jobs, everything is fair game; meaning, elaborate lighting and major set-ups sometimes.  More often than not, though, I usually get hired from the strength of work I've already done, which is the more simple set-up stuff.  

Jim Herrington is at JimHerrington.com.

http://www.myspace.com/jimherrington

Diana Bonebrake with David Smith
photo copyrights belong to S.A. Griffin


Diana Bonebrake is the Art Editor of La Luciole Magazine. She is a very gifted painter; you can see her work at www.bonebrakepaintings.com