Page 15 - 2017 Year In Review

John G. Zimmerman

John Zimmerman grew up in Torrance, California. He
knew from a young age what he wanted to do and joined
a photography club in Junior High School. His father, who
was a gaffer, or lighting technician, for Hollywood studios
further encouraged his son by building a darkroom at
home.

Upon graduating from the photography program at
Fremont High School, in Los Angeles, an intensive
program famous for launching the careers of no less than
six LIFE photographers. He served in the Navy, where he
worked as a photographer. After attending junior college,
Zimmerman landed a job with Time-Life in 1949, at the
age of 22.

Like many photographers of the era, Zimmerman had a
mechanical mind and tinkered with, modified and even built
his own cameras in his home workshop. During the course
of his career, he would pioneer or improve upon many of the
techniques widely used today, including the use of remote
controlled cameras, optically triggered strobe lights and
motor drives. Always looking to find new ways of portraying
his subjects, he was the first to put a camera in a hockey
net and on a basketball backboard. He was also a master
at combining natural and artificial light and was esteemed
by his peers for his insatiable curiosity and for sharing his
encyclopedic technical knowledge with other photographers.

In late January of 1980, Zimmerman traveled to Mission
Viejo, California to make photographic history. His image
of Jennifer Chandler diving proved to be one of the most
expensive and challenging of his career and combined
several photographic concepts and technologies into a single
photograph.

“There’s no such thing as an impossible picture,” he said.
“If you can visualize a picture in your mind, you can make
the camera do it.”

13