Thousands of rolls of film. And when you look at one or two of them – spread out on a lightbox, through a Lupe, yellow Chinagraph poised: the way he insisted we all did for as long as he could hold the digital world at bay – you see what an extraordinary gift he had. 36 exposures, at least 20-25 different scenes or set-ups. Yes, he’d work a shot; but mostly he got what he wanted first time and that was that, he’d moved on, gone, tirelessly creative, his imagination fizzing like a lit fuse.
- Joeclyn Targett
John Reardon - (1951 - 2018) was a British photographer, born in Cape Town.
Moved to England at 15-years-old and attended Warwick Boys School, he excelled at Rugby - going on to play for England under 19s
He studied film and photography at Birmingham University.
Whilst living in Birmingham, he collaborated on Grapevine Magazine and published Movement of Jah People, the first guide to Rasta in the UK.
In 1979, Reardon with his friends Derek Bishton and Brian Homer made the original Handsworth Self Portraits, a series of portraits of the Black and Asian community, shot against a white backdrop to put the focus on the individuals. Quickly becoming celebrated, recognised as one of the first selfie projects, it's now held by Autograph ABP.
Also, in 1979, he was part of the photographer's group who set up Ten 8 magazine - a seminal quarterly that focused on British photography, and lasted until 1993.
Reardon collaborated to publish Home Front in 1984, published by Random House and later exhibited at The Photographer's Gallery.
He began as a freelance photojournalist and picture editor in 1979.
He started shooting for The Observer in the mid 1980s, beginning a distinguished career in photojournalism that saw him photographing war and humanitarian stories in Sri Lanka, Kuwait, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, to name a few.
In 1993, he joined the prestigious Independent Photographers Group set up by John Easterby. The same year, he left for war torn Kabul, Afghanistan, and the outstanding results, displayed sumptuously in the Observer Magazine, saw his work gain global recognition at the World Press Awards. Reardon was invited to apply to join Magnum Photos; he refused, the story goes, because his portfolio "wasn't ready".
He continued to produce photo essays for The Observer including the war in Kosovo, and the aftermath of 9/11.
In 2001 Reardon started experimenting with portraiture, and, when The Observer launched its Food Monthly magazine in the same year, he found a new creative outlet shooting ground-breaking photographs of chefs - helping create a visual identity for the magazine that still persists to this day and always, always, doing it for real. His portrait 'Last supper' of 12 Michelin-starred chefs - featuring Gordon Ramsay, Marcus Wareing, Michel Roux Jr and Raymond Blanc was subsequently purchased by the National Portrait Gallery features a real wheel of brie thrown over Gordon Ramsay's head and he did hang Ferguson Henderson on a meat hook for the shot.
This very innovative and experimental style coincided with his work for the Darley Stud in 2001.
(after) Whistlejacket - Contemporary Equine Photographs - a solo exhibition of works by John Reardon at MMX Gallery (2023), was the first time these images were exhibited.
A selection of works from the exhibition have been acquired by various private collections, notably the Hermès Collection of Contemporary Photographs since November 2023.
For available prints from the Stallions series/ Equine Photographs, please view the 'Works' or the 'Exhibition' pages