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John is helping a satisfied customer
carry a purchased photograph to her car
Photograph ©Lance Munn
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By training,
John is an anthropologist-sociologist with a passion for diversity
that transcends any notion of cultural ethnocentrism.
His early
years of doing participant-observation research of Native
Americans and inner-city inhabitants have helped him develop
beliefs that all peoples share the gifts of creativity and
uniqueness.
Extensive
travels have reinforced this perspective that all cultures
are on parallel ground, and, that like any other works of
art, they are not better or worse than any other, only different-not
to be rank ordered.
Recent
participatory experiences in England, France, Greece, and
Italy have allowed him to view the cultures from the inside
looking outward-in his words, "trying not to look like
a tourist."
His ability
to speak French and some Italian (bequeathed by his Sicilian
grandmother) has allowed him to experience even a greater
level of cultural intimacy.
"I
traverse the landscapes and cityscapes on magical paths, seeking
mazes, labyrinths, passageways, chateaus, cottages, gardens,
courtyards and land art symbols…
Basked
in light divine
Enduring the ravages of time
Be it the isle of a sunny clime
Or fruit borne of a Sancerre vine…
"Using
my camera as a palette and paintbrush, my goal is to record
in context, the drama and fates of people who dance these
magical cultural paths to their own profound beat.
"For
me, the images represent the dramatic and the tranquil, the
'historique' and the 'moderna,' the profound and the mundane.
For you, my friends, let them be who and what you want them
to be."
Je vous
embrasse,
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