John Hooton Photography

About Us

Born in 1946, John Hooton left home for London aged just 17, to study photography by working as a photographer's assistant. Commencing as a messenger boy in an artwork photo copy studio, he soon found a better position as a messenger in a Fashion, Food and Advertising Studio. This studio employed top photographers, including Barry Lategan who took the first photos of Twiggy, and Ian Williams who was a master technician when using large format cameras to shoot food ads. Eric Mandel, a former photography teacher at London Polytechnic, was the senior advertising photographer and taught John, now an assistant, all about the finer points of black and white printing and the importance of overall technical quality required in professional work.

In December 1966, he was assisting John Cowan in Milan on a shoot for Italian Vogue and decided to stay in order to establish his career as a photographer. He began by shooting model composites while learning the language. In 1967 he shot his first magazine cover aged just 21. He worked in Milan until 1970 when he returned to get back to the London fashion scene.

John freelanced as an assistant to other photographers and studios. This work included photography for car brochures shot on location, food and room set photography for mail order catalogues. all this work involved large 10 x 8 format cameras where the work had to be of the highest technical quality.

John has since shot just about everything from food to fashion, and butterflies to aeroplanes. He now works from his home studio in Surrey.