As Unicef Sr. Photography Editor 1990-2013, Ellen worked closely with John, including on a 2008 assignment (after his UN retirement) to cover Unicef programmes in Namibia.
John is rightly known for the power, range, stylistic simplicity and compassion of his images, his commitment to humanitarianism and his love of craft. He also contributed many photographs to Unicef, including the one above of Karachi schoolgirls, which graced the promotional poster for the 1990 Education for All conference. The same year, dozens of his straight-on portraits of individual children from around the world created the mosaic of faces on a poster celebrating the World Summit for Children.
Born in 1943 in a village in Tamil Nadu, India, John arrived in New York City in 1969 (age 25), an ambitious folk musician. By happenstance, he secured an entry-level UN job as a clerk/messenger, taught himself photography and became a darkroom technician while, along the way, winning several photo awards. Promoted to a photographer in 1978, he spent the next 20 years covering peacekeeping missions, development projects, humanitarian crises and daily life across more than 100 countries.
His many subjects included Vietnamese “boat” refugees in 1978, the Ethiopian famine in 1984, Namibia’s 1990 independence celebration and the 1991 ecological disaster of Kuwait’s burning oil fields. For Unicef, his images documented a child survival campaign launch in Senegal in 1987, Audrey Hepburn’s Goodwill Ambassador visits to Ethiopia (1988) and Bangladesh (1989), and, in 1992, the impact of war on children in the former Yugoslavia and in Afghanistan.
In 1998 (age 55) he retired early from the UN to, for another 20 years, pursue other photography passions including: daily life and customs in India (where he had often returned); wildlife from tigers to puffins; and the coloured abstracts found in nature and cities alike from the emerald greens of Asian rice fields to the ochre hues in American caves, Manhattan towers at dusk and African deserts. He was an early convert to digital photography and a master printer (analogue, then digital). He contributed to several books and authored one on Kashmir’s culture and landscape (2008), and a four-volume series of children’s books on children in crisis. He spoke frequently about his photographic journey, imbued with a deep empathy and an instinctive commitment to justice and to the U.N.’s ideals. His was a life well lived.
He leaves his wife of 53 years, Jeannette Isaac.
See a recent UNHQ tribute to John @ https://news.un.org/en/gallery/1143742 and more of his work @ https://johnisaac.com.
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| Schoolgirls in Karachi, Pakistan, 1983. © Unicef/UNI46382/John Isaac |
John Isaac is one of the best-ever United Nations staff photographers and the most accomplished UN photographer during his tenure there (1978-98). He died on 1 November after a brief illness, age 80. He often said that “photography is a way of life” and, having found it, that is how he lived.
John is rightly known for the power, range, stylistic simplicity and compassion of his images, his commitment to humanitarianism and his love of craft. He also contributed many photographs to Unicef, including the one above of Karachi schoolgirls, which graced the promotional poster for the 1990 Education for All conference. The same year, dozens of his straight-on portraits of individual children from around the world created the mosaic of faces on a poster celebrating the World Summit for Children.
Born in 1943 in a village in Tamil Nadu, India, John arrived in New York City in 1969 (age 25), an ambitious folk musician. By happenstance, he secured an entry-level UN job as a clerk/messenger, taught himself photography and became a darkroom technician while, along the way, winning several photo awards. Promoted to a photographer in 1978, he spent the next 20 years covering peacekeeping missions, development projects, humanitarian crises and daily life across more than 100 countries.
His many subjects included Vietnamese “boat” refugees in 1978, the Ethiopian famine in 1984, Namibia’s 1990 independence celebration and the 1991 ecological disaster of Kuwait’s burning oil fields. For Unicef, his images documented a child survival campaign launch in Senegal in 1987, Audrey Hepburn’s Goodwill Ambassador visits to Ethiopia (1988) and Bangladesh (1989), and, in 1992, the impact of war on children in the former Yugoslavia and in Afghanistan.
In 1998 (age 55) he retired early from the UN to, for another 20 years, pursue other photography passions including: daily life and customs in India (where he had often returned); wildlife from tigers to puffins; and the coloured abstracts found in nature and cities alike from the emerald greens of Asian rice fields to the ochre hues in American caves, Manhattan towers at dusk and African deserts. He was an early convert to digital photography and a master printer (analogue, then digital). He contributed to several books and authored one on Kashmir’s culture and landscape (2008), and a four-volume series of children’s books on children in crisis. He spoke frequently about his photographic journey, imbued with a deep empathy and an instinctive commitment to justice and to the U.N.’s ideals. His was a life well lived.
He leaves his wife of 53 years, Jeannette Isaac.
See a recent UNHQ tribute to John @ https://news.un.org/en/gallery/1143742 and more of his work @ https://johnisaac.com.
Rest in Power, good man! I love your photo of "Schoolgirls in Karachi, Pakistan, 1983". Thank you Ellen!
ReplyDeleteJohn was an incredible photographer and more importantly an incredible person. His warm personality, and as a believer that there is good in everyone, would make any of his photo subjects feel at ease.
ReplyDeleteEveryone loved to be with John, especially Audrey Hepburn, who befriended John as no other.
You will be missed John.
Bill Hetzer