On a world tour with United Nations

Award winning photographer, John Isaac talks about the times when music was his passion and how this translated into his love for camera

John Isaac is an Indian-born, award-winning photographer and author who has lived in New York City for the better part of his career and life. In addition to being known for his work as a photojournalist for the United Nations,

he is also known for his independent freelance work, photographing celebrities, including Audrey Hepburn and Michael Jackson.

About his love for music he says, “I was born in India and destiny took me to New York City for a living.

I did my Bachelors of Science from Chennai and at the same time wanted to become a musician. I also studied Art at the Madras School of Art.

The reason of studying Art may be because ‘Art’ was always around me, my father Paul Isaac studied under Rabindranath Tagore at Santiniketan in the year 1932.”

Music was an early passion. “In 1968, as a 25-year-old, when I went to New York and joined Air India, I was excited with the ‘free ticket' offer. I was struggling as my visa was expiring with a lot of hippie movement and music going around.

I suddenly happened to receive an offer from Ms. Rose from the UN to audition for their Choir. They liked my ‘Baritone’ voice and I got my job,” says John.

With the interest in photography he started working as a darkroom technician. He said, “After working as a darkroom technician, and when I started winning awards in major photo festivals,

my director decided to send me to Lebanon on an assignment. During my career with the UN, I photographed in over 120 countries and retired as Chief Photographer after three-decade career.”

His connection with India is unique; he grew up in Irungalur, a village that did not even have electricity, near Trichy in India’s Tamil Nadu province. “India has a magnetic force, which always attracts me. I visit almost once every year.”

More recently, he has been working mainly in wildlife and travel photography, “There have been interesting experiences during my journeys—like the time I traveled to 45 countries for around 100 concerts with Michael Jackson.

I even did the exclusive photo sessions for his first child. I also worked with Audrey Hepburn. Pol Pot’s Cambodian Killing Fields, the Iranian Revolution,

the Ethiopian famine of 1984 and Rwandan genocide of 1994 have all happened right in front of my camera, and I have on occasions got drained emotionally seeing such disasters taking place in the world.

In India, I was friendly with MS Subbalakshmi and S Balachander. I know many musicians like Vikku Vinayakram, L Subramaniam, Shivamani, Selva Ganesh and I also had the opportunity to meet AR Rahman.”

About his book ‘The Vale of Kashmir’ about his future work, he says, “My book is about the people and landscape of Kashmir and is one of my favourite books. I am looking forward to an assignment in Arunachal Pradesh.

Till today, no one is talking about the ‘population explosion’. There is a very urgent need to educate each child in every village and I feel that it’s important to work on population control.

After Indira Gandhi, there has been no leader who has thought or talked about this aspect of life. My future works are going to focus on these issues.”

By:Jaywant Naidu