Luna Sweetheart: John Bergin
USING THEIR PHOTOGRAPHY TO HIGHLIGHT THE WARMTH OF PEOPLE - Photographer John Bergin translates the personalities of their subject through their warm and inviting style. As Bergin took on film as a more serious hobby and learned to develop their own film, their style found their roots in grain and the imperfections that come with it. Influenced by those around them, Bergin continues to learn and build upon their foundation of portraits. The photographer has also found their place in the creative community to challenge the status quo and help make the arts a more accessible and representative place. Read below to her more about Bergin’s journey with film photography, their influences and more.
LUNA: For starters, would you mind introducing yourself & touch on how you got into film photography to begin with?
BERGIN: Can do; Hi! My name’s John Bergin. A lot of the time people call me JB. I’m nonbinary and use they/them pronouns. I’m 25 years old and I’m a Virgo and for now I live in Austin, Texas. I started shooting film when I was 18, buying disposable cameras and bringing them to parties or on road trips. A year later I wanted to commit a little bit more to photography, so I asked my friend Lena what sort of digital camera I should buy. I figured that a more serious commitment meant pivoting to digital, but Lena said that I should buy a film camera because my experience up to that point had been shooting film. She sent me a link to someone selling a Minolta XG-1 who her friend had also bought from, and I’m still using that same camera today.
LUNA: I love the warm and grainy feel of your photos, how did you find your artistic style?
BERGIN: I’ve been discovering warmth and grain and, from those, my style, at very different rates throughout the time I’ve been shooting film.
There’s a distinct warmth to people, and in a lot of ways what I’m attracted to most in film is feeling that warmth, capturing a degree of that heat in a photo of someone. Making something hot to the touch. Being as close as possible to the fire of someone before it starts burning. Since I started taking photos and, I guess always, I’ve been interested mainly in people – their twists and turns, their moments of repose, where the stress is hiding. I think my artistic style is constantly influenced by the people I’m surrounded by and what they show me.
I don’t think I started cherishing grain until I started developing my own film in August 2018. Kindle Kreis, dear friend and photographer, showed me how when I moved to Austin. There are very clean ways to develop film and there are plenty of dirtier ways to develop film. I’ve found that I prefer being dirty; that choice grew partially from a lack of resources, but as I processed more and more rolls and started seeing a pattern of the same sorts of “dirty” things (watermarks, scratches, blotchy patches) I started falling in love with that quality and resonating with it on a personal level. I want people to know that my oily hands were all over the negatives, that I dropped the roll on the carpet while it was drying. That I made mistakes.
LUNA: Do you have any influences or references in particular that have shaped you as an artist?
Yes! There are countless photographers and artists and musicians and people that have shaped me as my own artist - so firstly, thank you to all of you. I’ll refrain from a yearbook-style string of initials of all these people but I’ll talk in brief (hopefully) about three photographers that come to mind: CJ Harvey, Kindle Kreis, and Elsa Dorfman.
I would say that I started taking film truly seriously in 2017, and that was when I discovered CJ Harvey’s work. There is a pervasive love to her photos, they drip in romance, the type of romance that friends feel when you hold hands all the time but never have to kiss. I learned about closeness from looking at CJ’s photos; how important proximity is. How distance defines those close moments.
Kindle, as I mentioned, taught me how to develop film. We still develop together from time to time and we share a lot of common sentiments when it comes to shooting film. People often take the details very seriously and make film photography an inaccessible art. I hate that and it’s comforting to know that I’m not alone. Along with that, she unassumingly captures the most beautiful array of moods and emotions in her photos, of togetherness and vibrancy and grit. Gasp-worthy moments.
Elsa Dorfman was recommended to me by a friend recently; there’s a documentary about her work that came out on Netflix in 2017. She has been hugely influential to me since seeing that documentary (and watching it again, and again, and… again. I have a lot of free time, y’know?) Her work is personal, and colorful, and filled with love and joy, and her way of talking about her work is so breathtakingly simple and full of a certain wisdom that I feel very strongly towards. She makes you feel like she knows you without ever having met. I just want you to watch her documentary instead of me cherrypicking things she’s said. Let me know when you’ve seen it!
LUNA: What’s your favorite story behind a photo?
BERGIN: I shot the album art for Christelle Bofale’s debut EP, Swim Team. It was a Saturday night so Christelle came over with a friend, Xylina, who did their makeup. We took a bunch of photos in my bathroom, and they were okay, but at a certain point I felt like we needed something different. Somehow we decided to take a beanbag I owned and put it in my backyard. By this point it was late, so it was dark, but I used my flash and shot a bunch of photos in the dark while Christelle posed in swim team attire on a beanbag.
Whenever I use my flash it’s a toss up… It acts funny, sometimes gets jammed for no reason, shoots strange shadow double exposures, things like that. A couple of them came out really good, and the one Christelle decided on had a watermark right over their face that happened because I didn’t let the film dry enough - a mistake. But a happy one! A very cool watermark!
When it was being released Christelle asked for a higher quality version of the photo so I rescanned it, but the watermark had disappeared. How strange! Some might say fateful! I think what I love about that photo and a lot of my photos is the feeling that these photos, these mistakes, happen once, and then it’s on to the next thing. I try to keep my mistakes close.
LUNA: I know things are weird right now, but what’s been inspiring you lately?
BERGIN: There’s a big patch of trees on the bike path I’ve been riding every day where all of the branches droop and sigh over one another but a lot of light still comes through, been thinking about that a lot. All the colors of Texas are blooming so it feels very inspiring to sit outside and look around. I’ve been inspired by talking with loved ones regularly, hearing how their routines have taken shape or have been fractured all across the country. I guess in some ways I’ve been inspired by myself; the more time I’m at home the more time I have to reflect on the Who and Why of me. I hardly ever have the moment to ask a question about myself and answer it in the same day and often the Why’s of me scare me so I’ve been practicing being better at following my fears with all the time we have right now.
LUNA: How are you taking care of yourself with everything going on? Are you finding space to still create?
BERGIN: I’ve been biking and practicing French every day to sustain some small routines. Outside of that, I’m letting myself fill the time as I want to however that is defined each day; sometimes that means shooting self portraits, or phoning a friend, or reading a book, or walking the dog without my phone, or watching Jersey Shore. Last week I watched the same movie four days in a row and it felt great to love something over and over. Sometimes I drown in the news for a while before eating a snack and calling a loved one.
I don’t think it’s unbelievable to say that this will probably last much longer than we all expect it to, so I’m settling into a stride of solitude for now and making sure I’m taking care of the people closest to me, along with as many people as I can, along with myself. I’m taking comfort in knowing that what I do right now is good enough, even if it is nothing – that we are all together powerless to this circumstance, and that we are good enough just getting by each day as we are.
LUNA: Why is representation important in the creative community? What role are you trying to play in that?
BERGIN: I think representation should be a consideration for every artist. What space do you occupy? Whose space are you taking up? Where are you sharing your space, your resources, your privileges? What’s defining you? Although having access to the internet is a privilege in and of itself, we live in a time period where more people than ever before have access to an unlimited amount of influences, platforms, and voices, and to me that makes it all the more important to firmly plant my craft and my creative identity in a progressive, forward-thinking garden. People see you, people are watching all the time, and I think it’s important to put your beliefs where people will see them, to follow the fear of being seen.
There is a pervasive history of white cis hetero men co-opting the successes of marginalized groups, across all genres of art and life. I would like to be a part of a history of artists that divests from that status quo, that poured ourselves into our communities first. To be a supporter of all marginalized communities. There are so many black queer folks and so many queer people of color who are creating and pursuing their art and it’s part of my art and life to recognize the privilege of my whiteness and where I should step to the side because of it. Art is political! Everything is political! Educate yourself on yourself!
LUNA: What do you like about working with others?
BERGIN: I love people. Ugh! I love people so much. I love getting to know you, and getting to have the weird privilege as a photographer to Look at someone for a long time and see what they tell me. Everybody is so beautiful and specific and everyone approaches having their photo taken so differently.
One of the most important parts of taking someone’s photo is the time before I hold my camera up. When we’re chitchatting, when they’re telling me they hate having their photo taken, when I ask them if they want some water, when they say they brought a couple shirts because they have a couple favorites and couldn’t decide, when they show me around their house, when they tell me about their day. I need to hear about someone’s day before I can make a photo that I love.
LUNA: What feeling would you want people to feel when seeing your photos?
BERGIN: A good gasp and smile.
To feel like you’re with friends who warm you up and like those friends are saying, “c’mon, come closer!”
I want you to fall in love like I’ve been falling in love: always with everyone everywhere.
LUNA: Do you have any upcoming goals or plans you’d like to share?
BERGIN: I’m working on my headstand – not a lot of progress yet. Might take this time to learn how to develop black and white film. Aside from those, I need to get my AC fixed and call more of my friends. I’m also in the midst of shooting the album art for one of my favorite artists of all time! I guess I should’ve said that first.
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