About Colors & Grays

Hello, my name is Mark John and Colors & Grays is my web-presence. My goal as a collaborative and conceptual photographer is to make a small contribution in interpreting the world as we can see and experience it in our time. It is a particular joy when I can combine my passions for music and photography in documenting live jazz events and recordings. Apart from that, I am indulging in spontaneous or abstracted opportunities as they present themselves. To me, photography is a meditation about seeing, trying to understand and remembering.

As a life-long learner I have studied and been inspired by many of the greats of photography and have taken masterclasses with e.g. Hermann Netz of the Leica Academy, and Magnum photographers Eli Reed and Alex Webb. I am a member photographer of the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel and of the Dumbo Fifteen collective. When it comes to jazz and music photography, here is a non-exhaustive list of masters which inspired me: Jim Marshall, Dennis Stock, William Claxton, Jeff Katz, Herman Leonhard, Guy le Querrec, Roy Decarava, Terry O’Neill, Annie Leibovitz, Francis Wolff, Herb Snitzer, Anton Corbijn, Robert Doisneau and Don Hunstein. Accordingly, it was quite humbling to me when I received an Abbey Road Studios Music Photography Awards 2023 Nomination for the category “In the studio”.

You might wonder about the name of  this website, well, picking one was a fun challenge. People usually either use their own name or make up something. When I reflected what I like to shoot, I knew that I often prefer black and white, which is different shades of gray. But equally I like some of my photos in color. From here I felt that the term "Colors & Grays" best represents my photographic philosophy. You can see how the photos are organized on this website in the sidebar, on Instagram they are organized in three columns: jazz, people, no people.

On the topic of gear, the vast majority of photos shown on this website were taken with analog and digital Leica cameras and lenses which I have been using for the past 30+ years. Not that a Leica makes anybody a better photographer, but they are great tools with a lot of mojo. I also sometimes use an analog Voigtländer Bessa III medium format camera and the iconic Polaroid SX-70.

If you would like to collaborate on a project just contact me, I am particularly interested in recordings and music or art events. I tend to work with what I find, i.e. candid scenes and available light. For any question or copyright/print inquiry, send me an email to mark (at) colorsandgrays.com. 

With that I hope you will enjoy Colors & Grays.

Have a great day - Mark

PS: The red and gray Colors & Grays logo on the sidebar is trademarked, I own the copyright to all images on this website (unless otherwise indicated), whether or not they contain a watermark.