After receiving a direct commission and training as a Health Services Administrator, John was stationed at Edwards AFB, CA in the Mojave Desert during this period. Having an ideal space in his house, he decided to set up his own darkroom as the facilities at this Base were not as good as those at Altus. All black and white negatives were developed and pictures printed in this darkroom. He began to delve into color 35mm negatives. The negatives were developed by an outside lab, but printing was done in his darkroom. However, the difficulty of producing color prints in the darkroom limited the amount of work he actually accomplished. The majority of his color work continued to be via 35mm slides.
There were fewer photographic collaborators here so John was more on his own. However, there was still a very strong need to express himself artistically and that was a sufficient motivator to continue his work. He became more experimental, trying unusual lighting, high-contrast copy film, infra-red film, more advanced darkroom techniques such as solarization. And he took advantage of the unusual environment in the high desert with its dry lakes, joshua trees and occasional desert snowfalls.
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Black and white pictures |
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Color pictures |