Biography
- John G. Bluck, learned the craft of photography from his father who started the first color
photographic laboratory in Chicago.
"I learned composition by making many black and white enlargements even before I
was a teenager. My dad used to be very critical of composition, contrast and quality.
I
think that criticism served me well so that the skill of making powerful photographs
became automatic to me," Bluck said. Knowledge of the golden mean and other
compositional techniques enabled him to compose well while shooting.
In college, at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, he earned a BS in
Communications, 1970, and an MSc in Radio and Television in 1971.
He shot still photographs and motion pictures of antiwar demonstrations, sports and
other events including a civil rights march in Cairo, Illinois, for public television
news. Bluck was drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War, but he stayed in the States at
Ft. Lewis, Washington.
He shot film of numerous Army helicopter rescues of injured civilians
in the Northwest. Many of these news clips were used on local television news.
Later, he
worked briefly for KIRO-TV (CBS affiliate), Seattle. After he finished his Army service,
he worked in Miami at WCKT-TV (NBC affiliate) as a cinematographer covering crime,
politics and other events for local news.
In 1974, he moved to Washington, DC to work for WMAL-TV (now known as WJLA-TV,
an ABC
affiliate) where he shot film and tape for several years, covering politics, sports and
crime. In 1976 he was runner-up to Cameraman of the Year, Northeast Region, National Press
Photographers' Association. He was also a member of the White House News Photographers'
Association.
He was one of five or six people in the television pool who filmed the delivery of the
letter of resignation of President Nixon following Watergate.
[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Ship Finder Chapter Analysis ] [ Bluck's Bio (photo-related) ] [ Bluck's Writing Bio ] [ In the News ] [ Sample Chapter, Ship Finder YA Edition ] [ Review The Ship Finder ]
