Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa S. Johnson.
Hi Lisa, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in a small town in northern Canada where my father played guitar, and my mother sang. Growing up in a musical family was fun and my mother taught me how to sing. My Father was also an amateur photographer and that was an influence on me later in life when I decided to go to college for photography. After college, I worked in a private photo lab in Florida that serviced aerospace companies. This required me to have a secret clearance to handle classified materials. With this experience, I was later hired by the Eastman Kodak Company as a Technical Sales Representative. My first territory was in Houston, TX with NASA as my main client, given my background in aerospace material handling. The last three territories I covered for Kodak were Memphis, Manhatten, and Las Vegas. In NY, I enjoyed working with the top fashion, product, and editorial photographers and the photo labs that processed and printed their work. Meanwhile, when I had been in Memphis, I had started photographing guitars for a friend of mine who needed some guitars photographed for his vintage guitar store, and I fell in love with my own imagery for the first time. When I landed in NY, I was inspired by all the incredible musicians who lived and played in the city, and figured I may as well keep photographing guitars in my spare time, except they would be famous ones, and I would eventually make a book! I published my first book, 108 Rock Star Guitars in 2013 and Immortal Axes in 2021. The first book has also been published as a softcover in Japan.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been a long road that has been the ride of my life! The most challenging part of which has been the requesting process to gain access. Once I find out exactly who to contact, I write a personalized request and begin the process of follow-up and coordination of the photo shoot that works for all parties. The funnest part is the actual photo shoot, and then post-production follows. Sometimes it is a challenge to obtain accurate information about the instrument so a lot of time is put into research for the written piece for each guitar. The key is to persevere and keep my eye of the birdie!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I specialize in capturing the world’s most famous guitars that are owned and played by iconic guitar players. I illustrate the wear and tear details of the guitar that personify the artist without them having to be in the image. What is left behind on the guitar tells a unique story about the artist and how they play it. I am proud of both my breakout book “108 Rock Star Guitars” and working with Les Paul, who wrote the Foreword for the book. And working with Peter Frampton, who wrote the Foreword for my second book “Immortal Axes” and Suzi Quatro, who wrote the Afterword for it. There is a great story that ties both Peter and Suzi together that happened organically in the production of the book in that they worked together on her first album and then again on my book. My work stands apart from other guitar books because I focus on the guitar as art and capture them in the artists home and spaces that create unique intimate portraits of these iconic guitars never seen before.
Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Nothing is going to happen if you don’t try. I have always reached for the stars and push through boundaries of insecurity and potential rejection to reach my goals. This involves taking the risk to just simply ask.
Pricing:
- My first book is a red leatherette bound book with gold end pages, vellum inserts, a 16-page booklet, and a guitar pick, so it is pretty expensive at $108.00 and is a very substantial book.
- Immortal Axes is a hard-cover book with gold and silver inlays. It is beautifully bound and retails for $60
Contact Info:
- Website: www.immortalaxes.com, www.108RockStarGuitars.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lsjrockphotos/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LSJROCKPHOTOS
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/LSJrockphotos
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC81wKzhmhWtGUzy4XO5DMbA
Image Credits
Tambi Saffran
Tommy Ewasko
Johnny Buzzario
